TOP FUEL

(Richard Muir)

An item was checked off of Antron Brown's NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series bucket list on Monday at the rain-delayed NHRA New England Nationals - take home a Wally trophy.

Brown scored his first Wally at the New Hampshire track, leaving only two venues that the two-time and reigning champion has not scored an event title. The Matco Tools team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald and assistant Brad Mason also earned the No. 1 qualifying position, giving the Matco team a clean sweep of the Epping weekend.

The No. 1 qualifying position earned Brown a first-round bye but was then paired against Don Schumacher Racing teammates Shawn Langdon and Tony Schumacher before the final round against Steve Torrence.

Brown used a starting line advantage and a 3.769-second pass at 314 mph to take the title over Torrence's 3.778.

"It feels good," Brown said. "We've been to a couple of other finals this year that we feel like we should've won. This was a great race weekend. We're still learning some different things on the car and we are growing. The car is showing us great signs of being a phenomenal racecar.

"Brian, Mark and all of our guys on this Matco Tools/U.S. Army team are putting the work in. We're reaping the benefits. We had a couple of rounds today that went our way and it felt good to have that on our side and it felt good to be able to capitalize on that in the final round.”

Steve Torrence (Richard Muir photo)

Runner-up for the second time in the last four race, Steve Torrence moved up a position in points to third, behind Brown and Doug Kalitta.

Torrence got a big break in the first round when Canadian rookie, Smax Smith, could not return to run on Monday. He then had a bye in the second round because of the short field of 13.