TOP FUEL

Troy Buff surprised everyone racing to the final round where his 3.918/307.58 could not beat Brown’s 3.843/314.68.

Brown and his team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with assistant Brad Mason delivered the first Mello Yello Drag Racing Series title of the season to DSR that ended a dry spell during which DSR's three Top Fuel dragster were unable to advance past the second rounds of the first three races.

"It's huge, especially considering where we came from. We had a rough start to this year, and it's just the way it goes sometimes," Brown said.

"We had a couple of things we had to change - we had to change our (tuning) combination around because we have different parts and pieces. 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 but then you end up pushing too hard. On race day today, the car was just like a bracket car. It ran 3.84 seconds, an .84, an .82 and an .84. It did exactly what it needed to do to get us these round wins.

"This all has 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 disposed of all four of his opponents with consistent runs that were four of the five fastest Top Fuel runs on a day several top competitors experienced problems getting a handle on the track. Brown’s victories came over Scott Palmer in the first round (3.840/313.88 to 4.121/249.35), Leah Pritchett in the second round (3.846/313.95 to 3.878/322.11), Dave Connolly in the semifinals (3.826/316.90 to 3.865/297.02), and Troy Buff in the Top Fuel final.

The Las Vegas event win moves Brown into second in points behind Brittany Force and ties him at 39 with Kenny Bernstein on the all-time Top Fuel win list. Brown also has 16 Pro Stock Motorcycle wins.