Antron Brown is Ready to Push Forward to Las Vegas After Early Exit in Dallas
ENNIS, Texas (Oct. 12, 2025) – After a consistently solid performance in qualifying during the Texas NHRA FallNationals, Antron Brown, the driver of the bright pink Matco ‘Tools for the Cause’ Top Fuel dragster, experienced an early first-round exit today at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas.
Brown opened his weekend at the event known as the ‘Stampede of Speed’ with an excellent pass right out of the box on Friday afternoon, laying down a solid run of 3.825 seconds at 330.25 mph to place him in the top five after the first qualifying session. On Friday evening, Brown stepped it up even more, taking his 12,000-horsepower machine on a blistering run of 3.695 seconds at 336.70 mph to move him up one position to fourth.
The Matco Tools team, led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Brad Mason, continued making great runs through qualifying on Saturday, as Brown made two impressive passes in the heat of the afternoon in the third and fourth sessions, a 3.817 at 331.74 mph followed by a 3.920 at 304.96. All of his qualifying attempts resulted in sub-four-second runs, but it was his hot lick on Friday evening that landed him in the fourth position on the ladder heading into race day.
On Sunday, Brown lined up against Ida Zetterström for the first round of eliminations. While Brown got the starting line advantage over Zetterström, he ran into tire smoke early, giving up the round win.
“It’s just racing,” remarked Brown. “On any given day, you might be good at racing, or you might suck at it. But I like to think, when things go wrong, that’s when you do the most learning. I know our team is frustrated and we’re just tired of learning right now. But the thing about it is, we just push the limits and the track wasn’t gonna hold what we wanted to run. We were just trying to replicate our Friday night run and they got us. I think the track was just deteriorating really fast. So, everyone had to try to back off and try to run mid-70s; that’s the smart thing to do. We will just regroup and get ready for Vegas. It just hurts right now because we could have made up a lot of good points with the people right in front of us.”
Despite his successful outing during qualifying, Brown’s early exit caused him to slip to the No. 9 position in the Top Fuel rankings. The points are tight, however, and there is plenty of opportunity for Brown to climb his way back up in the standings when the AB Motorsports team makes its way to Las Vegas next for the penultimate event of the season, the NHRA Nevada Nationals, Oct. 31 – Nov. 2, at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Qualified: No. 4 (3.695 E.T. at 336.70 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 5.127 E.T. at 158.61 MPH defeated by Ida Zetterström 4.257 E.T. at 206.86 MPH
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel Point Standings (Unofficial):
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ENNIS, Texas (Oct. 12, 2025) – After a consistently solid performance in qualifying during the Texas NHRA FallNationals, Antron Brown, the driver of the bright pink Matco ‘Tools for the Cause’ Top Fuel dragster, experienced an early first-round exit today at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas.
Brown opened his weekend at the event known as the ‘Stampede of Speed’ with an excellent pass right out of the box on Friday afternoon, laying down a solid run of 3.825 seconds at 330.25 mph to place him in the top five after the first qualifying session. On Friday evening, Brown stepped it up even more, taking his 12,000-horsepower machine on a blistering run of 3.695 seconds at 336.70 mph to move him up one position to fourth.
The Matco Tools team, led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Brad Mason, continued making great runs through qualifying on Saturday, as Brown made two impressive passes in the heat of the afternoon in the third and fourth sessions, a 3.817 at 331.74 mph followed by a 3.920 at 304.96. All of his qualifying attempts resulted in sub-four-second runs, but it was his hot lick on Friday evening that landed him in the fourth position on the ladder heading into race day.
On Sunday, Brown lined up against Ida Zetterström for the first round of eliminations. While Brown got the starting line advantage over Zetterström, he ran into tire smoke early, giving up the round win.
“It’s just racing,” remarked Brown. “On any given day, you might be good at racing, or you might suck at it. But I like to think, when things go wrong, that’s when you do the most learning. I know our team is frustrated and we’re just tired of learning right now. But the thing about it is, we just push the limits and the track wasn’t gonna hold what we wanted to run. We were just trying to replicate our Friday night run and they got us. I think the track was just deteriorating really fast. So, everyone had to try to back off and try to run mid-70s; that’s the smart thing to do. We will just regroup and get ready for Vegas. It just hurts right now because we could have made up a lot of good points with the people right in front of us.”
Despite his successful outing during qualifying, Brown’s early exit caused him to slip to the No. 9 position in the Top Fuel rankings. The points are tight, however, and there is plenty of opportunity for Brown to climb his way back up in the standings when the AB Motorsports team makes its way to Las Vegas next for the penultimate event of the season, the NHRA Nevada Nationals, Oct. 31 – Nov. 2, at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Qualified: No. 4 (3.695 E.T. at 336.70 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 5.127 E.T. at 158.61 MPH defeated by Ida Zetterström 4.257 E.T. at 206.86 MPH
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel Point Standings (Unofficial):
| 1 | Doug Kalitta | 2525 |
| 2 | Justin Ashley | 2384 |
| 3 | Shawn Langdon | 2366 |
| 4 | Steve Torrence | 2297 |
| 5 | Brittany Force | 2291 |
| 6 | Tony Stewart | 2289 |
| 7 | Clay Millican | 2279 |
| 8 | Shawn Reed | 2255 |
| 9 | Antron Brown | 2242 |
| 10 | Josh Hart | 2152 |
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