Antron Brown, Austin Prock, Dallas Glenn & Matt Smith Pick Up Playoff Wins at NHRA Carolina Nationals

• Antron Brown takes over lead with second straight TF triumph
• Austin Prock keeps rolling, wins third straight FC race
• Dallas Glenn goes back into PS lead after duel with Stanfield
• Matt Smith nabs 40th career win, moves into PSM points lead

CONCORD, NC – September 23, 2024 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Three-time Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown moved into the points lead for the first time since 2017, winning his second straight playoff race on Sunday at zMAX Dragway after defeating Doug Foley in the final round of the 16th annual NHRA Carolina Nationals.

Austin Prock (Funny Car), Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won the 16th of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season and the second of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

In the final round, Brown went 3.848-seconds at 319.90 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Matco Tools/Toyota dragster to beat Foley’s 3.862 at 316.08, powering to his fifth victory this season and 79th in his career. It was also his 63rd Top Fuel win, as Brown passed Larry Dixon for the second-most Top Fuel wins in NHRA history.

After qualifying 10th, Brown put together a workmanlike Sunday, defeating Steve Torrence, Billy Torrence and reigning world champion Doug Kalitta to reach the final round. He then led wire-to-wire against Foley, taking over the points lead for the first time in more than seven years. His points lead stands at 53 and 62 points over Justin Ashley and Shawn Langdon, respectively. Kalitta is 67 points behind.

“When you race somebody like Doug Foley, you don’t falter and say, ‘Well, I can’t mess up.’ That’s when you set yourself up for failure,” Brown said. “We go out there and run what we can run, and give it all we got, and it fell our way. We just keep working hard and digging, no matter what. You’ve got to show up on raceday and we have that mindset to stay humble and stay hungry.

“We still have four races left. Drag racing’s math. There’s 16 rounds left on table to win and our goal is go out there wins many of those rounds as possible. We won the first eight, so we’ve got a third of them.”

Foley reached his second career final round after beating Tony Schumacher, Ashley and Clay Millican.

Funny Car’s Austin Prock continued his absolute dominant run in the loaded category, winning his third straight race and seventh overall in an incredible 2024 campaign, racing past defending world…