Brown puts Matco dragster in Vegas winner’s circle to move closer to defending Top Fuel championship

LAS VEGAS, NV – Antron Brown is not ready to concede defense of his 2012 NHRA Top Fuel world championship, but Don Schumacher Racing’s quest for a third straight Funny Car world championship came to an end Sunday in the NHRA Toyota Nationals at Las Vegas.

Brown won his fourth Mello Yello Series title of the season in his third consecutive championship round to jump from fourth to second in the championship standings. But only one event remains – in two weeks at Pomona, Calif. – and he still has a mountain to climb to catch points leader Shawn Langdon who left The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a 102-point lead.

The most a driver can earn at the NHRA Finals is 150 points.

“We’ve hoping, we’re praying, and the Good Lord has been blessing us – we’ve had the jars out and he sure is filling them right now, so anything is possible,” said Brown, who has advanced to the championship round at the last three events and left with two titles. He also is the only DSR driver who has won events in the first five of six races in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoff.

“We’re still in it. We’ve just got to take it one step at a time. We’re loving this NHRA series right now. We’re loving it.”

The news was not good for DSR Funny Car drivers chasing the championship after John Force won his third consecutive title to clinch his 16th championship with one event left.

Matt Hagan, who led the points for most of the year in his Rocky Boots/Mopar Dodge Charger R/T before losing it to Force three weeks ago, lost in the first round Sunday that aided Force ascent to the crown.

Hagan won the 2011 championship and his DSR teammate Jack Beckman won it last year, but DSR will have to wait a year for its fourth Funny Car championship.

One of Sunday’s biggest stories from Las Vegas happened off the dragstrip when popular veteran nitro driver Tommy Johnson Jr. was named to take over the cockpit of DSR’s Pitch Energy Funny Car currently driven by Johnny Gray, who is retiring from full-time nitro race after the season-finale in two weeks at Pomona, Calif.