NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Antron Brown lives for challenges, and the bigger they are the more excited the Top Fuel standout gets.

The defending Top Fuel world champion has a major one this weekend at the one-of-a-kind seventh annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowes Foods at zMAX Dragway. It’s the only race that features four 10,000-horsepower nitro machines facing off against each other at once, presenting a challenge unlike any other race.

But Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster have relished moments like these, winning the past two Four-Wide Nationals in the loaded Top Fuel class. The chance to become the NHRA’s first three-time winner at the highly-anticipated event is there, and it’s a challenge that has Brown excited.

It’s not the only challenge Brown is trying to tackle in 2016 as well. The two-time Top Fuel champion is also trying to claim a second straight world title for the first time in his career and become the first repeat champion in the class since 2009 when teammate Tony Schumacher finished off his string of six straight championships.

“What we do is accept the challenge and the harder the challenge the more focused we get on the task at hand,” Brown said. “You have to be on your toes in the Four-Wide with everything that goes on. You can’t mess up because it’s a battle royal. Things come at you from all directions and you have to hit it quick and get ahead. The stakes are even higher in the Four-Wide and we give it all we have and any extra we can find.”

Jack Beckman (Funny Car), Larry Morgan (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) joined Brown in the winner’s circle one year ago. The unique race, which will be televised on FOX Sports 1 (FS1), is the fifth of 24 during the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season and Brown heads into zMAX Dragway with impressive momentum.

Brown won the most recent race in Las Vegas, exorcising any minor struggles that precluded his team during the first three races of 2016. A first-round loss in Gainesville left him 10th in points, but Brown knew his team would respond in championship fashion in Las Vegas. It led to Brown’s most consistent effort of 2016 and gave him his 39th career Top Fuel win, tying him with the legendary Kenny Bernstein for fourth-most in class history.

“We had a rough start to this year, and it’s just the way it goes sometimes,” said Brown, who has 55 victories, including the wins he earned while competing in Pro Stock Motorcycle early on in his career. “We had a couple of things we had to change — you had to change your combination around because you have different parts and pieces than you had before. We started off and it wasn’t like our car wasn’t running well. It was running great.

“You come out and you just want to win and you want to win early, and you end up pushing too hard. These struggles we were having have made us learn more and you grow more, and you’re able to get results like that after learning from when things aren’t going right.”

Brown has been around the sport too long to get frustrated by a brief rough stretch, and the same goes for a group led by talented crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald. But success and victories are the ultimate goals for each weekend, and consistently quick performances like the one in Vegas is what Brown, currently second in points, is always after. That won’t change at the all-concrete zMAX Dragway, even if the four-lane racing provides a unique challenge.

“That’s what we shoot for every race weekend, and we’re always trying to learn from whatever happens,” Brown said. “Not just learn from it, but to build upon it for the next race. That’s always our goal. We don’t do anything different. We just try to be more efficient every time we go up to the starting line.”

Standing in Brown’s way at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals are a host of standout performers, including eight-time world champion Schumacher, points leader Brittany Force, who won her first career Top Fuel race in Gainesville, and veteran Doug Kalitta. Others to watch are J.R. Todd, Steve Torrence, won opened 2016 with a victory, Clay Millican, Shawn Langdon and Gatornationals runner-up Terry McMillen.

But Brown is the winningest active Top Fuel driver at zMAX Dragway and he mentioned a major reason why his team has had success at the state-of-the-art facility.

“Our success in the Four-Wide is because of the adaptability our Matco/U.S. Army/Toyota team has,” Brown said. “It’s a totally different race and we have been able to adapt to that unique format and everything that goes on around us. You have to beat two cars until the final and then you have to beat everybody. We throw the strategy of racing one car out the window. We can’t leave anything on the table.”

Mello Yello Drag Racing Series qualifying will feature two rounds at 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. on Friday, April 22 and the final two rounds of qualifying on Saturday, April 23, at 2 and 4 p.m. Final eliminations are scheduled for 12 p.m. on Sunday, April 24.

Be a part of the action all weekend with a Three-Day Pass to the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals starting at $107.  Tickets for children 13 and under are free with any paid adult ticket; to purchase general admission or reserved seats please visit www.zMAXDragway.com or call the box office at 800-455-FANS (3267).