Quarterfinal Finish at Lucas Oil Nationals for Top 10-Ranked AB Motorsports Team

BRAINERD, Minnesota (August 21, 2022) – Less than one week after powering to their first win of the season, the AB Motorsports team kept the momentum rolling at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minnesota. Antron Brown and his Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster were solid during qualifying, earning the No. 5 seed after Brown clocked his best E.T. of the year in Saturday’s first session. Brown’s 3.701-second pass held up to be the third-quickest of the round and set up a Sunday morning match-up between the three-time Top Fuel world champ and Clay Millican. Against Millican, Brown once again reset his season-best E.T., taking the Matco Tools machine on a winning 3.688-second ride to extend his round win count to five in a row.

In the quarterfinals, Brown faced Steve Torrence, his final-round opponent from last week’s Topeka, Kansas event, and was looking to add to his 34-20 round-win tally over his longtime friend. Unfortunately for Brown, his chances at making a run for another Wally trophy were cut short when he stood on the throttle and immediately lost traction. He pedaled his machine in an attempt to chase Torrence down but his opponent was already too far down the track when he encountered issues of his own and Brown simply ran out of real estate.

“All-and-all it was a good weekend here at Brainerd for our Matco Tools team at the Lucas Oil Nationals,” said Brown, who maintained his Top 10 ranking in the Countdown point standings. “Things got tricky in the second round for all of the teams and we’re bummed about that because we wanted to keep making some strides in the points. We qualified in the top half of the field with that 3.70, our quickest pass of the year, and bettered that in the first round with that 3.68 and that was second-quick of the round.

“We’re making big, big strides and heading in the right direction. This Matco dragster is running well early and I’m so proud of this team for the work they’ve put in. They never lost the faith in each other and our goals. We’re peaking at the right time. We plan on testing on Monday here at Brainerd to get ready for our biggest race of the year, the U.S. Nationals at Indy, and we want to go out and do well before the Countdown to the Championship.”

Brown and his No. 10 ranked Brownsburg, Ind.-based AB Motorsports team will compete next at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis over Labor Day weekend, Sept. 2 -5, where Brown returns as a three-time event champion at his home track.

Qualified: No. 5 (3.701 E.T. at 329.83 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:
E1: 3.688 E.T. at 328.22 MPH defeated Clay Millican 3.721 E.T. at 327.51 MPH
E2: 5.335 E.T. at 247.25 MPH defeated by Steve Torrence 4.945 E.T. at 255.19 MPH

NHRA Camping World Series Top Fuel Point Standings (unofficial):