"In the last two races we won seven out of eight rounds," Brown said. "We just want to finish the year out strong just like that. If we do that in the next two races it puts us right there contending for the championship at the end. We just have to keep on pushing."

In the first round, Brown was quicker at the starting line that allowed his 3.811 seconds (321.88 mph) overcame a better run (3.808) by Billy Torrence. Brown then defeated the higher seeded Brandon Bernstein and DSR teammate Spencer Massey to reach the final round.

"Today showed that anything is possible with a lot of people going out early," Brown said. "We're going to keep giving it our all and take it one round at a time and just do what we can do. We're still in the fight for the championship and we just have to focus on getting those win lights. We have two weeks off to kind of take a breath and get recharged to go after it in Vegas."

Top Fuel Points: 1. Shawn Langdon, 2,441; 2. Doug Kalitta, 2,358; 3. Spencer Massey, 2,355; 4. Morgan Lucas, 2,316; 5. Antron Brown, 2,312; 6. Tony Schumacher, 2,302; 7. Clay Millican, 2,232; 8. Khalid alBalooshi, 2,223; 9. Bob Vandergriff, 2,187; 10. Steve Torrence, 2,125.

FUNNY CAR

For the 28th time in his legendary career John Force won back-to-back races. Coming off a win the previous week at St. Louis, Force outran rookie driver and former John Force Racing crewman Chad Head in the final at Reading, 4.106 seconds to 10.002 seconds. Winning from the No. 1 qualifier position for the first time since at the 2004 Auto Club NHRA Finals, Force gave credit to not just his Castrol GTX crew chiefs but the entire John Force Racing team of crew chiefs and crewmen.

“This is a good race car. (Crew chiefs) Jimmy Prock and Danny DeGennaro have things really going. Robert (Hight) told me that this was a great team when I came over here. What is most exciting is the team work,” said Force. “The other crew chiefs are all trying to win but they are also helping us when we are headed to the semi-finals or the finals. They were up on the starting line rooting for me and you could see the sincerity. Back at the trailer the crew chiefs are going over the computers and Robert is showing me the videos so I can see anything that can help me on staging.”