TOYOTA’S BROWN EARNS RECORD-BREAKING WIN AT LAS VEGAS
LAS VEGAS – Antron Brown defeated Tony Schumacher in the Top Fuel finals of the Denso Spark Plugs NHRA 
Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to become the first Top Fuel driver in NHRA history to win at least one race in 10 consecutive seasons.
Brown defeated Scott Palmer, pole-sitter Steve Torrence and Leah Pritchett to set up the final round match-up against Schumacher. The win is his first of the season and the 46th in Top Fuel competition for the long-time Toyota driver.
“This track is hard to race at,” said Brown. “You get different climates every day and it’s really a crew chief race and a team race. The Matco Tools/Army/Toyota team just went to work today. We ran four rounds and you had to make adjustments every round and we had some tough battles. When you race against two of your teammates, you know you’re in for a battle because we all have the same quality parts that come out of Don Schumacher Motorsports. You’ve got to throw everything at it. We had to push hard. We qualified eighth and to win that race it felt like my first win because it’s been that tough all year.”
With the victory, Brown has now either won a race or clinched a championship in each of his last four appearances in Las Vegas – clinching Top Fuel titles at the Toyota Nationals in the fall of 2015 and 2016 and winning the spring events here in 2016 and 2017.
“When I think about Vegas, it’s like coming home,” relayed Brown of his recent success. “It has been very good to us. It seems like big things happen here. Vegas has been a crucial turning point at the beginning of the season for us and, obviously, when we come back for the Toyota Nationals in the fall, the focus is on winning championships and we’ve been fortunate to clinch here two years in a row.”
With the win, Brown closes to within just 25 points of the championship lead behind Schumacher.
Doug Kalitta came up just four one-thousandths of a second from matching up with Brown in the finals in a narrow loss to Schumacher in the semi-finals. He previously had defeated Steve Chrisman and Clay Millican.
Troy Coughlin Jr. was upset in the first round by Terry McMillen after qualifying seventh.
In Funny Car, Alexis DeJoria advanced to the second round with a win over teammate J.R. Todd before eventually being eliminated on a red light against Gary Densham. Neither Cruz Pedregon nor Del Worsham was able to advance past the first round with Pedregon falling to Jack Beckman and Worsham losing to Matt Hagan.
The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series is back in action at the Royal Purple Raceway in suburban Houston for the NHRA Springnationals, April 21-23. Doug Kalitta is the two-time defending champion of the event.
