TOP FUEL

Antron Brown took another step towards becoming just the fifth Top Fuel driver in NHRA history to sweep the grueling Western Swing by winning his fourth race of the season July 19 at Pacific Raceways near Seattle. The win is the 22nd of Brown's career and he extended his points lead to 137 following 14 of 24 races on the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series schedule. 

On Saturday Brown qualified the bright blue Matco Tools/Lend America dragster in the No. 10 position with a qualifying-best lap of 3.952 seconds at 305.84 mph. It was the fastest speed of qualifying. On race day, Brown bested fellow Matco Tools Racing driver Clay Millican, fan-favorite Morgan Lucas, 2009 Rookie of the Year frontrunner Spencer Massey, and six-time series champion Tony Schumacher in the final round to earn his sixth career Top Fuel win. Brown has advanced to the final round at half of the races this year.

Matched up against Massey in the semifinals for the second straight week, Brown was out of the gate first and drove to his seventh final round appearance of the season. Massey's Don Prudhomme-owned dragster lost traction at the hit of the throttle as Brown cruised into his 45th career final round and 12th in Top Fuel. The Matco-backed rail carded a performance of 4.000 at 295.79 to earn lane choice in the final round against Schumacher. It was Brown's 290th elimination round win and he is 3-1 against Schumacher.