BROWN CONTINUES ST. LOUIS DOMINANCE; WINS ALL-TOYOTA TOP FUEL FINAL AT ST. LOUIS NHRA

TORRANCE, CA – Antron Brown defeated Shawn Langdon in an all-Toyota Top Fuel final to win for the third consecutive year at the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at the Gateway Motorsports Park in suburban St. Louis, Sunday.

It was the third time this season that Brown and Langdon have squared off in the finals with Brown also getting the advantage at Norwalk and in the Charlotte Four-Wides in April.   The 2012 world champion eliminated Brittany Force, Terry McMillen and Steve Torrence before his final round match-up with Langdon.

“This was a big day for us,” said Brown.  “We came to this race and knew our backs were against the wall. The last four races, we’ve been working hard but, no matter what we did, our car was just not cooperating with us. But we got it back. Now, our car, we’re close, we’re competitive and we pulled off this win today.  St. Louis has always been  good for us.”

Langdon defeated Pat Dakin, J.R. Todd and Bob Vandergriff on the way to his sixth final-round of the season.  With the strong showing, he’s moved up to second in points, just 57 points out of the lead with three races remaining.

Khalid alBalooshi and Richie Crampton each lost in the first round in Top Fuel.

In Funny Car, Chad Head advanced to his first semi-final showing of the season to lead the way among the Toyota contingent.    He defeated Robert Hight and Tommy Johnson in the first two rounds before eventually falling to Matt Hagan.

Del Worsham advanced to round two before losing to eventual race-winner Courtney Force.  Cruz Pedregon was defeated by Jeff Arend in round one, while Alexis DeJoria was narrowly beaten by Matt Hagan on her opening run.

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series concludes a four-races-in-four-weeks portion of the Countdown schedule next weekend, Oct. 3-5 at the Maple Grove Raceway outside of Reading, Penn.  It will mark the fourth of six events in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.