Three-time Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown moved into the points lead for the first time since 2017, winning his second straight playoff race on Sunday at zMAX Dragway after defeating Doug Foley in the final round of the 16th annual NHRA Carolina Nationals.
Austin Prock (Funny Car), Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won the 16th of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season and the second of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
In the final round, Brown went 3.848s at 319.90mph in his Matco Tools/Toyota dragster to beat Foley’s 3.862s at 316.08mph, powering to his fifth victory this season and 79th in his career. It was also his 63rd Top Fuel win, as Brown passed Larry Dixon for the second-most Top Fuel wins in NHRA history.
After qualifying 10th, Brown put together a workmanlike Sunday, defeating Steve Torrence, Billy Torrence and reigning world champion Doug Kalitta to reach the final round. He then led wire-to-wire against Foley, taking over the points lead for the first time in more than seven years. His points lead stands at 53 and 62 points over Justin Ashley and Shawn Langdon, respectively. Kalitta is 67 points behind.
“When you race somebody like Doug Foley, you don’t falter and say, ‘Well, I can’t mess up.’ That’s when you set yourself up for failure,” Brown said. “We go out there and run what we can run, and give it all we got, and it fell our way. We just keep working hard and digging, no matter what. You’ve got to show up on race day and we have that mindset to stay humble and stay hungry.
“We still have four races left. Drag racing’s math. There’s 16 rounds left on table to win and our goal is go out there wins many of those rounds as possible. We won the first eight, so we’ve got a third of them.”
Foley reached his second career final round after beating Tony Schumacher, Ashley and Clay Millican.
Funny Car’s Austin Prock continued his absolute dominant run in the loaded category, winning his third straight race and seventh overall in an incredible 2024 campaign, racing past defending world champion Matt Hagan in the final round with a run of 3.924s at 326.48mph in his Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS. There appears to be no stopping Prock, who has opened up a commanding 129-point lead in the Funny Car ranks through the first two playoff races after delivering his 11th career win.
He reached the championship round on Sunday thanks to wins against Alexis DeJoria, Ron Capps and John Force Racing teammate Jack Beckman. Hagan and Prock then delivered a thriller in the finals, with Hagan leaving first and going 3.958s at 324.98mph. But Prock was able to track the reigning champ down, adding another monumental performance in a season filled with spectacular runs and victories.
“We left the door open to get beat today a couple times and then my team made wholesale changes going into the semifinals, stuff I would say 95 percent of the crew chiefs wouldn’t change going into a round, and it went up there and flew,” Prock said. “It stuck. It was on a mission, and I did the same thing in the final round.
“I’m just trying to take it one moment at a time, one round at a time. And if you do that, you don’t get caught up in being the leader, being the chaser, just go up there and do the best that you can do, because each person on the team has a specific job to do, and they have to do it perfect to have the success. We’ll celebrate tonight and then get my head back in the game and go and try again, one run at a time.”
Hagan, who qualified No. 1, reached the finals for the ffith time this year and 92nd time in his career with round wins against Dave Richards and Bob Tasca III. Hagan was looking for a sweep of both Charlotte races this year. Tasca is second in points, while Beckman trails his teammate by 136 points.