“Man, that was like a final right there,” Brown said. “Shawn and his team are just unbelievable. In fact, all the drivers we beat today are from great teams. This Top Fuel class has gotten to be so tough. When you win one of these races, you have clearly earned it.”

Al-Anabi Top Fuel teammates Khalid al Balooshi (left) and Shawn Langdon have had mixed results this year. At Joliet al Balooshi lost to Hilary Will in the first round while Langdon made it to the semifinals. (Ron Lewis photo)

After sliding a bit in the standings in recent weeks, Brown has moved back into second place and now sits just three points behind Tony Schumacher as the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series hits the halfway point in the 2012 season.

“Obviously, we have a long, long way to go yet,” Brown said. “This is going to be a dogfight the rest of the way. Of course, we want to be right in the middle of it until the very end.”

Steve Torrence (Ron Lewis photo)

Steve Torrence advanced to his third final round of the season Sunday and he turned in another outstanding race-day performance that was marred only by his red-light start against Antron Brown in the championship round.

Torrence left 15-thousandths of a second too soon and Brown stopped the timer in 3.784 seconds at 322.88 mph.