BROWN TAKES TOYOTA TO THIRD STRAIGHT WIN, TOPS FIELD IN READING;HEAD GOES TO FUNNY CAR FINAL

TORRANCE, CA – Antron Brown defeated Tony Schumacher in the finals to win the NHRA Keystone Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway and become the first Top Fuel driver in NHRA history to win the opening three rounds of the Countdown to the Championship. Chad Head fell just short of making it a Toyota Nitro sweep as he registered a career-best 3.903-second pass in his Toyota Camry Funny Car, but lost on a hole-shot to Jack Beckman in the final.

Despite qualifying only 12th, Brown defeated Clay Millican, Dom Lagana and Larry Dixon before his 3.717-second final round run earned him a career-best seventh victory of the season.

“This day was just a true blessing,” said Brown, who now has a 94-point championship lead. “To go out there and do what we did today was a monumental statement. We just kept running what we thought the track would hold. We just raced the track, not the other competitors and we were fortunate enough to come out with a win. You don’t go into the Countdown believing you’re going to win the first three races. That’s what you hope to do. Charlotte was tough, but this race was also tough because you go into eliminations without any runs down the racetrack. When we came out today, it was pretty much the first session of qualifying for us. Getting a good, clean run down the track helped us a lot and the track got about eight times better by the second lap.”

Head had a career-best day in advancing to the finals running consecutive passes of 3.965, 3.968 and eventually his final round career-best pass of 3.903 seconds. Ironically, his day began by running and defeating John Force with a 5.328-second pass in the opening round. He wasn’t alone as the colder morning conditions and a lack of grip on the track resulted in just seven of the 30 cars entered in the two Nitro classes being able to make trouble-free passes down the track.

Cruz Pedregon was the only other Toyota Funny Car driver to win in the first round in beating Courtney Force. Point-leader Del Worsham, his teammate Alexis DeJoria and Tony Pedregon all fell in their first runs down the track on Sunday. It was just the second run for each as rain and cold had limited the Nitro classes to just one qualifying session on the weekend.

In Top Fuel, Richie Crampton and Shawn Langdon each advanced to the second round before bowing out. Crampton defeated Smax Smith in the first round before losing to Tony Schumacher in the second round, while Langdon notched a victory over Leah Pritchett in his first run, then was unable to make a clean pass in his round two match-up with Larry Dixon.

Just three races remain in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs beginning Oct. 16-18 in Dallas at the Texas Motorplex, followed by the Toyota Nationals in Las Vegas, Oct. 30-Nov. 1, and concluding in Pomona Nov. 13-15.