TOYOTA’S BROWN EARNS 50th TOP FUEL WIN AT SEATTLE
SEATTLE, WA – Toyota driver Antron Brown defeated Leah Pritchett in the Top Fuel finals at the CatSpot NHRA 
Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways to become just the fourth driver in NHRA history to win 50 Top Fuel events.
Brown opened the day with a win over Shawn Reed to set up a second-round match-up against teammate Tony Schumacher. Both cars smoked the tires early, but Brown recovered quickly to win the pedal-fest. In the semi-finals, he would face Steve Torrence in an epic match-up. Brown had an .020 second advantage at the light, then held off Torrence to win on a hole-shot by .009 seconds.
In the finals against Pritchett, Brown had the lead when they went by the Christmas tree and never trailed from there on for his third consecutive Seattle victory. The final margin of victory was 0.0047 seconds (approximately two feet).
“It’s no secret that we struggled at the beginning of the year,” said Brown, who joined Tony Schumacher, Larry Dixon and Joe Amato as the only NHRA drivers to win 50 Top Fuel events. “We lost (crew chief) Brian Corradi and then we had a lot of our team moving around, so they’ve had to gel in new spots and positions.
Our main focus has just been to get better every race and learn this new combination and how to make it work. We were good in Sonoma, we were good in Denver, we were good in Virginia. We were just losing close races. We used to be on the opposite side and today all of the win lights turned on for our team. I couldn’t be more proud of my Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota guys in how persistent they’ve been throughout the year. Now it’s happening at the right time with the Countdown approaching. Our car is showing it. We’re qualifying in the top five and we just want to keep doing it. Top three is our goal, but we’re going for the number one spot. Now we have a shot to move up a spot or two in that really will help us in the Countdown.”
Doug Kalitta and Richie Crampton also advanced to the second round today in Top Fuel. Kalitta closed out a strong Western Swing with a win over Bill Litton before smoking the tires in a round two loss to Mike Salinas. Crampton opened the day with a key win over Brittany Force to move into ninth place in the Top Fuel standings. He then was eliminated by Torrence in the second round.
In Funny Car, Shawn Langdon was the top qualifying Toyota and continued his strong weekend by defeating Jack Beckman in the first round. In round two, he narrowly lost in what was arguably the top race of the day, falling to point leader Courtney Force by just .0002 seconds. Langdon had the better reaction time, only to get edged by inches at the finish line.
“After qualifying, we really thought we’d have a shot at the race win today,” said Langdon. “We just lost a great drag race to the points leader by two ten-thousandths of a second. There’s nothing to hang your head about. We’ve been making great runs all weekend. The guys have done a great job of turning this car around right before a crucial time for the Countdown. I feel good on the tree and I feel good driving the car. The crew’s done a great job of giving me a great Global Electronic Technology Camry. This is the best I’ve felt all year and I’m really looking forward to getting to Brainerd and then to Indy and then the start of the Countdown. This is the best car we’ve had I feel I’m driving my best. This is our time to shine.”
J.R. Todd also advanced to the second round in Funny Car with a win over Bob Tasca before falling to Tim Wilkerson in round two. Cruz Pedregon was defeated by pole-sitter Matt Hagan in round one.
The Mello Yello Drag Racing Series will take next weekend off before heading to Brainerd, Minn., for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals, August 17-19.
