TOP FUEL

(Brad Turk photo)

The 57th career win for Brown propelled the Matco Tools team to the points lead for the first time in 2016 as the Mello Yello Series kicked off the second half of its 24-race tour.

"I don't even think about it but it's good that we got it," Brown said of the points lead that will have great value for the driver ranked No. 1 when the Countdown to the Championship begins in September and points are reset.

"Those 30 points are crucial. It's hard to make up 30 points when you only have 24 rounds of racing to win a championship. That's two rounds. That's going to be very crucial and we just have to keep working. Hopefully we can sneak it out and get those points that we need to help us for that title defense."

Sunday's Route 66 final round was the fifth of the season for the Matco Tools team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with assistant Brad Mason.

"We are loving it right now," Brown said. "We are starting to go in the right direction. Our car is responding to everything that Brian, Mark and all these Matco guys are doing to it. We found new things that is making it better. We are on to something and we are just going to keep improving upon that.

“Our deal is we try to win every race we go to. We compete at a high level and our main goal is to come into a race and go out there and be efficient and that means getting every drop out of this lemon every time.

"We need to be on that level to be where we want to be at like where we were last year. That's the key right now, getting your team and car ready to go to battle (in the Countdown to the Championship)."

Brown’s 3.753/325.06 defeated Clay Millican’s 3.779/313.80 in the first round and a 3.785/324.44 took care of Terry McMillen’s 3.984/304.53 in the second.

In the semifinal Brown’s Matco Tools dragster ran 3.762/324.05 to take the win over Leah Pritchett’s 3.814/319.22. Pritchett got sponsorship this weekend and was able to compete, but she is still looking for a full-time sponsor.

Leah Pritchett (far lane) and Brittany Force met in the second round. Pritchett’s 3.872/311.63 got the win to Force’s troubled 4.327/187.31. (Brad Turk photo)