JOLIET, Ill. (May 18, 2025) – Four-time and reigning NHRA Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown once again showed why Route 66 Raceway is one of his favorite stops on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series tour. The defending event winner at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals, Brown blazed his way to the quarterfinals, setting a track speed record along the way in his Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster. Brown leaves the Chicagoland track ranked third in the Top Fuel point standings.
A six-time winner at Route 66 Raceway, Brown made his presence known early and often throughout qualifying. In Friday’s opening session, he posted a 3.907-second pass despite dropping cylinders, which placed him fourth at the time. Brown lost traction early in the second qualifying session, ending the day No. 8 on the qualifying sheet.
Crew chief Brian Corradi refined the tune-up for the third qualifying session on Saturday, which doubled as the first round of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Top Fuel Challenge. Brown, who earned a spot in the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge by reaching the final quad at the Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, lined up against Tony Stewart in what was a thrilling side-by-side race. Brown clocked a 3.691 E.T. at 336.23 mph, but Stewart edged him out with a career-best 3.679. The pass did propel Brown back to the No. 4 spot, though. Brown closed out qualifying in style during the final session, ripping off a 3.697 at 338.09 mph, the fastest pass in Route 66 Raceway history. It was also Brown’s fastest career pass as well as the quickest run of the session, giving Brown three bonus points.
“It was really cool to see our car run a big mile-an-hour,” Brown said. “It did it several times this weekend with some big speeds, so that’s telling you the horsepower department is in the right area. I’m super pumped and proud of that. When you have power like that, it equates to E.T. It’s really cool to do it here in Chicagoland and being the ‘king of speed’ up here at Route 66.”
In Sunday’s first round of eliminations, Brown matched up with T.J. Zizzo and delivered another spectacular pass, a 3.689 E.T. at 337.16 mph, the quickest of the round. Brown’s Route 66 Nationals campaign ended in the quarterfinals, where he smoked the tires early and attempted to regain traction, but ultimately had to lift off the throttle and coast to the finish line.
“We’re feeling good right now,” Brown said. “The track got real tricky on us in the second round. The track was only 10 degrees hotter, but it got really, really tricky. We’ve just got to get on top of that and just get ready for the next race, but we’re making the right moves and the right strides. We’ll get better because of that and looking forward to it because our car is running really, really good. Brian’s making the right calls out there to get us to where we need to be. I’m looking forward to these races to come because we’re only gonna get better from here.”
The next stop for Brown and the AB Motorsports team is the NHRA New England Nationals, May 30-June 1, at New England Dragway in Epping, N.H.
Qualified: No. 4 (3.691 E.T. at 336.23 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 3.689 E.T. at 337.16 MPH defeated T.J. Zizzo 10.108 E.T. at 80.54 MPH
E2: 7.178 E.T. at 113.87 MPH defeated by Justin Ashley 4.407 E.T. at 295.53 MPH
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel Point Standings (Unofficial):
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A six-time winner at Route 66 Raceway, Brown made his presence known early and often throughout qualifying. In Friday’s opening session, he posted a 3.907-second pass despite dropping cylinders, which placed him fourth at the time. Brown lost traction early in the second qualifying session, ending the day No. 8 on the qualifying sheet.
Crew chief Brian Corradi refined the tune-up for the third qualifying session on Saturday, which doubled as the first round of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Top Fuel Challenge. Brown, who earned a spot in the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge by reaching the final quad at the Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, lined up against Tony Stewart in what was a thrilling side-by-side race. Brown clocked a 3.691 E.T. at 336.23 mph, but Stewart edged him out with a career-best 3.679. The pass did propel Brown back to the No. 4 spot, though. Brown closed out qualifying in style during the final session, ripping off a 3.697 at 338.09 mph, the fastest pass in Route 66 Raceway history. It was also Brown’s fastest career pass as well as the quickest run of the session, giving Brown three bonus points.
“It was really cool to see our car run a big mile-an-hour,” Brown said. “It did it several times this weekend with some big speeds, so that’s telling you the horsepower department is in the right area. I’m super pumped and proud of that. When you have power like that, it equates to E.T. It’s really cool to do it here in Chicagoland and being the ‘king of speed’ up here at Route 66.”
In Sunday’s first round of eliminations, Brown matched up with T.J. Zizzo and delivered another spectacular pass, a 3.689 E.T. at 337.16 mph, the quickest of the round. Brown’s Route 66 Nationals campaign ended in the quarterfinals, where he smoked the tires early and attempted to regain traction, but ultimately had to lift off the throttle and coast to the finish line.
“We’re feeling good right now,” Brown said. “The track got real tricky on us in the second round. The track was only 10 degrees hotter, but it got really, really tricky. We’ve just got to get on top of that and just get ready for the next race, but we’re making the right moves and the right strides. We’ll get better because of that and looking forward to it because our car is running really, really good. Brian’s making the right calls out there to get us to where we need to be. I’m looking forward to these races to come because we’re only gonna get better from here.”
The next stop for Brown and the AB Motorsports team is the NHRA New England Nationals, May 30-June 1, at New England Dragway in Epping, N.H.
Qualified: No. 4 (3.691 E.T. at 336.23 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 3.689 E.T. at 337.16 MPH defeated T.J. Zizzo 10.108 E.T. at 80.54 MPH
E2: 7.178 E.T. at 113.87 MPH defeated by Justin Ashley 4.407 E.T. at 295.53 MPH
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel Point Standings (Unofficial):
| 1 | Tony Stewart | 512 |
| 2 | Shawn Langdon | 510 |
| 3 | Antron Brown | 447 |
| 4 | Doug Kalitta | 418 |
| 5 | Justin Ashley | 385 |
| 6 | Brittany Force | 334 |
| 7 | Steve Torrence | 304 |
| 8 | Clay Millican | 297 |
| 9 | Josh Hart | 279 |
| 10 | Jasmine Salinas | 271 |
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