TOP FUEL

The Mike Ashley Racing DirecTV team also earned Best Appearing Crew honors with their uniforms from new sponsor DirecTV.  (Ron Lewis photo)

Antron Brown collected his 20th career NHRA victory Sunday, May 3, at Gateway International Raceway and reclaimed the NHRA Top Fuel points lead.

A day after qualifying the DirecTV/Matco Tools dragster in the No. 7 position at 3.906 seconds, Brown defeated 31-time Top Fuel winner Doug Kalitta, 30-time Top Fuel winner Cory McClenathan, and 2009 Rookie of the Year candidate Shawn Langdon before holding off 17-time winner Brandon Bernstein in a great final round at G.I.R. Brown now leads six-time champion Tony Schumacher by 18 points.

Brown got the jump at the start against Kalitta and never looked back, scoring the wire-to-wire win with a performance of 3.896 seconds at 311.05 mph. The Michigan runner's yellow dragster lost traction and slowed to a lap of 4.549 at 182.87. Brown is now 4-3 in seven career matches with Kalitta.

Brown then claimed his 50th career Top Fuel round win by edging 30-time Top Fuel winner McClenathan in round two. The veteran racers used nearly identical reaction times as Brown used a tune-up from crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald to power the rail to the quickest and fastest pass of the round, 3.864 at 312.35. McClenathan's FRAM dragster trailed slightly at 3.885 at 301.81. Brown is now 6-3 against McClenathan in nine races.

Competing in the semifinals for the fourth time in seven races this season, Brown cruised to his third final round appearance of the season. Langdon got a slight jump out of the starting gate, but Brown powered around at 3.854 at 312.67 to score the win in the right lane. Langdon's Lucas Oil-backed dragster posted a lap of 3.878 at 305.98. It was the first meeting of the season between Brown and Langdon.

Racing in his 41st career final round, Brown and Bernstein treated the fans at Gateway to a great race. Two of the young lions of the sport used stellar reaction times as Brown set low elapsed time and top speed of the event en route to his 20th career win. The former college track star and Pro Stock Motorcycle rider powered to a lap of 3.850 at 318.02, his fastest 1,000-foot speed, to win his second race of the season and fourth in Top Fuel. The Rob Flynn-tuned Budweiser car was a tick slower at 3.888 at 310.27. Brown is now 5-3 against Bernstein.