CONCORD, N.C. — It isn’t only mothers who have eyes in the back of their heads.
Three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Antron Brown said any drag racer launching from the starting line in a four-wide event needs them.
For the record, Funny Car’s Alexis DeJoria is the only pro racer to compete in a four-wide event who’s a mom. And for the record, the challenge at this weekend’s NGK NTK Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway is not gender-specific.
“The Four-Wide Nationals, it’s a battle royal and you better be coming with your eyes forward,” Brown said. “But you’ve got to have eyes in the back of your head. Four-wide racing comes at you from every direction.”
He said his Matco Tools/Toyota/Global Electronic Technology/SiriusXM/Hangsterfer’s Dragster team “is ready to go to war,” not at all at fatigued from simply reciting his list of sponsors.
A lot is at stake this weekend for Brown, beyond breaking a tie for Charlotte dominance with best buddy Steve Torrence — the man he defeated in the final round at the most recent event at Atlanta Dragway. He can make history beyond earning a sixth victory (and third in four-wide format) at the Concord, N.C., dragstrip.
With his next victory, Brown will pass retired five-time champion Joe Amato on the Top Fuel class’ all-time victories list at 53. Only Tony Schumacher (85) and Larry Dixon (62) have more Top Fuel triumphs.
When Brown wins again, he also will tie Kenny Bernstein for No. 6 on the sport’s list of most-successful drivers. Brown has won 52 times in Top Fuel after earning 16 Pro Stock Motorcycle trophies; Bernstein reached 69 victories with 39 in Top Fuel and 30 in Funny Car.
Moreover, Brown’s next elimination round-win makes him the sixth driver in NHRA history to reach 750 round wins. That’s counting his combined performances in the Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle classes. Funny Car’s John Force leads the pack with 1,361 win lights. Nos. 2-5 are Pro Stocker Warren Johnson (874), Top Fueler Schumacher (850), Pro Stock’s Greg Anderson (849) and Funny Car’s Ron Capps (772).
Brown grew up in Chesterfield, N.J., and tagged along with his dad and uncle to NHRA races at New Jersey’s Old Bridge Township Raceway Park and Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania, called it “huge,” to be mentioned in the same sentence with Joe Amato.
“He was always a huge hero of mine. I remember growing up and he had the motto ‘Hang on Sloopy, because here comes Joe.’ I remember him winning those back-to-back championships and being a dominant force in drag racing. He’s really a true legend of our sport,” Brown said. “Just to be mentioned alongside of him is a great honor for me. Just to be on that list, period, knowing where I’ve come from and where I’m at now.”
When Brown talks about where he came from, he sometimes is referring to his Northeast racing roots and when he was “a kid walking around with holes in my jeans at the knees, being all greasy from head to toe . . . that little kid living the American Dream.”
He said, “I remember as a kid underneath the bleachers, playing in the sand, and saying, ‘Man, I wish I could race one of those nitro cars one day.’ It’s a big dream for me, where I came from.”
But sometimes he talks about his recent “where I came from” journey. Brown had slogged through a winless one-year stretch from August 2017 through August 2018. A repeat victory at Washington’s Pacific Raceways ended that streak, but then endured another 42-race drought that he ended at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in November.
“We went through the trials and tribulations, but we survived. Hard work prevails. You beat resistance with persistence, baby,” Brown said. “The way we fought through all the adversity as a team to get back to winning races feels like a real accomplishment. You have to go through things like that to be amongst those great. They went through a lot of turmoil in their time and I guess when you get that many wins, you’re going to go through some yourself. So I’m fortunate even to be mentioned with Joe, let alone to be able to tie him.”
As the Camping World Drag Racing Series pros prepare for their second four-wide affair in three events, Brown said he feels haunted by the most recent one, at Las Vegas in April. He has some unfinished business, he would say, because he launched first in his final-round quad and opened a sizable lead at 300 feet before overpowering the race track.
“Really excited to get back out there. Vegas Four-Wide was a great race, but it felt like one that slipped away,” he said. “I’m glad we get to go out to Charlotte and have another crack at it. The weather is looking like it’ll be phenomenal. I’m super-pumped coming off of our win at Atlanta and we’re looking to carry that momentum into Charlotte.”
Brown, who’s driving one more year with the Don Schumacher Racing organization before taking over the Matco Tools/Toyota team as an independent owner, had four-wide victories at zMAX Dragway in 2014 and ’15.
But he said, “First things first. We want to get ourselves qualified at the top of the ladder, and then (we’re) looking to take it one round at a time on race day.”
He’s looking, that is, through those eyes in the back of his head.