Brown Wins the Final Wally At NHRA Southern Nationals; Ties Amato for third All-time
COMMERCE, GA – In the final NHRA event at Atlanta Dragway, it was only fitting that the series all-time Top Fuel win leader at the track 
would close it out with a victory and that’s exactly what Antron Brown did in defeating Steve Torrence in the final round to earn his fifth Lucas Oil NHRA Southern Nationals Top Fuel victory Sunday. In the process, Brown tied Joe Amato for third all-time in career NHRA Top Fuel wins with 52.
The victory is the second for Brown in the last four races as he also defeated Torrence in the 2020 season finale at Las Vegas.
The Matco Tools/Toyota/Sirius XM driver opened his day with a victory over fellow Toyota driver Doug Kalitta. Brown had a slight advantage on the tree, then opened up a lead through the 600’ mark before Kalitta started to close back up, but it wasn’t enough as Brown won 3.793-3.800 with a margin of victory of .017 seconds. In round two against pole-sitter Billy Torrence, Brown had a sizable lead in reaction time (.038 seconds) and then out-ran him the rest of the way, winning by .047 seconds.
With the win, Brown advanced to the semifinals where he faced off with Brittany Force. Once again, Brown had a clear advantage on the tree (by .028) and it would prove to be the difference as Force registered the quicker time (3.785-3.786), but Brown won handily by .027 seconds. That would set up a head-to-head match-up with Steve Torrence for the second time in the last three two-wide races with Brown having defeated him in the finals in the season finale in 2020 at Las Vegas.
Brown had a slight advantage on the tree, but then proceeded to run his quickest pass (3.752 seconds at 325.22 mph) in defeating Torrence by .045 seconds.
Brown wasn’t the only Toyota driver to have some success on Sunday, Despite battling the difficult track conditions all weekend, Shawn Langdon still registered a solid day on Sunday, advancing to the semifinals before being eliminated by Torrence. He defeated Leah Pruett in his opening round matchup and then dispatched Mike Salinas in round two. He leaves Atlanta third in Top Fuel points.
J.R. Todd also had a strong weekend in his DHL Toyota Camry. After earning number one qualifier honors on Saturday, Todd advanced to the semifinals with a win over Camry driver Alexis DeJoria in round one, then running an impressive 3.991 in a second-round bye. In the semifinals against John Force, Todd had the advantage on the tree and led in the early going, but Force was eventually able to move past him by 300’ and went on to the victory.
Next up for the Camping World Drag Racing Series is the NGK NTK NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, May 14-16.
