It has been a frustrating season for Antron Brown and his Matco Tools for the Cause Top Fuel Dragster. Following a runner-up finish at the previous event in Richmond, VA, Brown was looking to go one step further on Sunday at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals and pick up his first event win of the 2019 season.

His race day started with a round-one meeting with No. 15 qualifier Brittany Force. Against the former world champion, Brown cut a quick 0.057 reaction time to earn the holeshot advantage. His winning 3.736 E.T. awarded him with lane choice against rookie Jordan Vandergriff in round two. Once again, Brown was first on the throttle and first to cross the finish line.

In the semifinals, he faced friend and reigning Top Fuel champion and current point leader Steve Torrence. Brown had a small starting line advantage but his engine gave way to a huge fireball shortly after launch and Torrence was able to drive away with the round win, ending the three-time world champion’s day at the semifinals. (Chicago Jon Hoffman photo)

Still, Brown remains optimistic about his team.

“We qualified second, ran low E.T. of round one, second low of round two. The good part is, we’re getting to the place where we want to be,” he said. “The car is performing well, and we’re getting back into our game. A win is right around the corner, we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing. I feel really good about our guys, and where our whole team is at right now. We’re improving, and each week we’re getting one step closer to where we want to be.”    [06/04/19]

Pro Stock will have a two-week break before resuming action in Norwalk and the Elite Motorsports team will take that time to work on their cars’ performance.

While Erica Enders made it to the final round at Joliet and she once again was killing it on the tree (well, except for the red light in the final), her Chevrolet was slightly off in terms of performance. The team believes they found an answer and will work to have things corrected by Norwalk.

“We identified a huge issue causing a performance deficit for us,” said Enders, who has 23 career Pro Stock wins. “It’s a big issue across the board for us, so identifying it and moving forward is a positive. We’ll fix that problem and come back swinging in Norwalk. It’s a good time to get momentum on our side.”

In the meantime, Enders will once again compete in Pro Mod this week at the Heartland Nationals in Topeka.  (Ron Lewis photo) [06/04/19]

Sidnei Frigo (near lane) won the last Pro Mod event at Richmond, VA. Stevie “Fast” Jackson currently leads the Pro Mod points. (Chris Haverly photo)

After having a record number of nitro competitors at Joliet, the numbers are down significantly for Topeka this week. There are only 13 entrants in Top Fuel and 15 in Funny Car. In addition, TAD has only 15 and TAFC has 14.

The one pro class that is full? Pro Mod with 26.  [06/04/19]

The Funny Car Chaos rode into Amarillo, TX, on Saturday, June 1. Winner of the A field was Brandon Lewis in his “Attitude Adjuster” over Ken Singleton. Chuck Loftin got the B field win over Jordan Ballew. It was the first wins for both racers in their first year with the series.  [06/04/19]