Antron Brown raced to his third Lucas Oil Raceway win Monday when the action came to an end at the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil.
Mike Neff, Greg Anderson, and Hector Arana Jr. were also winners in their respective categories at the final race of the regular season before the start of the NHRA Countdown to the Championship, the six-race playoffs to determine the world championships.
Brown became the first driver to win the historic event in both Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle when he powered his Matco Tools dragster to a 3.813-second run at 321.73 mph. The final-round performance was enough to get past Del Worsham and secure his fifth win of the season and 30th of his career.
Antron Brown
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Mike Neff
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Greg Anderson
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Hector Arana Jr.
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“Words cannot describe how this feels,” said Brown. “To come here and win at Indy, the biggest stage in drag racing, means so much. It just goes back to my childhood dream and sitting under those grandstands as a kid and saying ‘I want to do that one day.’ It’s the greatest feeling I’ve ever had.”
With the final regular-season race complete, the Top Fuel field is set for the NHRA Countdown to the Championship. Worsham secured his No. 1 spot in the points standings during qualifying, and Kalitta Racing driver Dave Grubnic locked down the 10th and final spot after both Terry McMillen and Bob Vandergriff Jr. lost in the second round.
In Funny Car, Mike Neff drove his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang past Bob Tasca III to secure his first Mac Tools U.S. Nationals win. Neff posted a run of 4.068 at 314.61 in the final round to take his fifth win of the season and sixth of his career. It was also John Force Racing’s fifth Mac Tools U.S. Nationals win in the past six seasons.
“This is the big one, the one you dream about,” said Neff. “It’s huge to win here. I’ve never won here as a driver or a crew chief so to be able to do it here as both was great. It probably hasn’t even sunk in yet.”
Neff secured his top spot in the Funny Car standings for the Countdown to the Championship during qualifying, and runner-up Tasca clinched the 10th and final spot after Johnny Gray lost in the first round to Daniel Wilkerson.
Pro Stock points leader Anderson continued his domination at Lucas Oil Raceway when he held off teammate Jason Line to earn his sixth Mac Tools U.S. Nationals win. Anderson and his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP posted a final-round run of 6.552 at 210.50 to get his fifth win of the season and 70th of his career. It was also his fourth win in the past six races.
“I feel like it’s my first and biggest win ever,” said Anderson. “Every time it happens up here, it’s just special; it’s just magic. I love this place. I think some of the other racers might miss out on how important it is and what it means to race here. There’s so much history here. It’s just everything about drag racing.”
While Anderson locked up his No. 1 spot in the Countdown to the Championship, Ron Krisher secured the 10th and final spot when 11th-place driver Ronnie Humphrey lost to Allen Johnson in the second round.
Arana raced to his first win in Pro Stock Motorcycle when he held off Jerry Savoie in the final round. Arana rode his Lucas Oil Buell to a 6.867 at 192.60 to take the win in his second consecutive final-round appearance for the season.
“It has not sunk in on me yet,” said Arana “This is the biggest race of the year, and I won it in my rookie year. For all my family, this is a hometown event, and it just doesn’t get any better than this.”
Eddie Krawiec locked up the No. 1 spot in Pro Stock Motorcycle for the Countdown to the Championship, and Jim Underdahl secured the final spot with his semifinals finish.
Eric Dillard raced to his first win Monday in the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series.
Dillard powered his R2B2 Race Cars ’12 Mustang past runner-up Mike Castellana with a 5.830-second run at 253.99 mph to earn his first win in his first race appearance.
“It’s really hard to take it all in,” said Dillard. “I did some testing for Roger Burgess early in the year, and he told me then that sometime this year I was going to get to race. He picked the U.S. Nationals, which you can’t do any better than that.”
Dillard held off drivers Kenny Lang, Rickie Smith, and Melanie Troxel en route to the win. Kahlid Balooshi kept his top spot in the point standings with his second-round appearance.
Frank Manzo became the winningest driver in U.S. Nationals history when he collected is 10th Indy win in Top Alcohol Funny Car on a final-round defeat of Fred Tigges. Top Alcohol Dragster honors went to Bill Reichert for the third time, and Jirka Kaplan won Comp. The remaining NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series class winners were Shane Carr (Super Stock), Jeff Teuton (Stock), Brian Folk (Super Comp), and Ryan Herem (Super Gas).
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