If his Matco Tools Dragster keeps behaving like it has all season long and he stays on top of his game, too, Antron Brown could join a small circle of NHRA racers who have distinguished themselves by winning at least 50 national events.

Brown this year could become only the 10th to do so. Right now he's tied at 43 with two-time Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon at 12th on the list.

But Brown said after winning Sunday's Four-Wide Nationals such milestones aren't really on his radar.

If they were, he said, he'd be thinking about another Tony: his Don Schumacher Racing colleague Tony Schumacher.

"I look at Tony Schumacher, and he has 73," Brown said. "Our career's still young, and we're going to keep pushing."

Said Brown with a mixture of comedy and tenderness, "I don’t want to think about history or breaking records until my career is over. Hopefully when I look back – one day when I kick the boots off and take the helmet off and don’t get no darker for being on fire – I can look back and go, 'What a career!' And hopefully I can leave that legacy behind for my kids to look at and say, 'My dad was somebody.' "

Until then, he said, "Hopefully I can make a little bit more history and break some records. We just want to compete at a high level every time we step forth on the racetrack. If we do that, we give ourselves a great shot at winning races. That's what my whole mind set is.

"I don’t worry about the stats we just achieved," he said. "I worry about achieving more and more."

He said he'd go home to Pittsboro, Ind., and to the DSR shop at nearby Brownsburg to bolster his Matco Tools crew and work on his reaction times on the practice Christmas tree. And he said he'll be at the gym, as usual, knowing his personal trainer will push him to his limits each visit.

So he's at 43 victories with Sunday's latest. But who’s counting? When he gets 30 more, like Schumacher has now, he'll know he still has long way to go to have the most.

After all, Schumacher is fifth on the NHRA's all-time list – with No. 1 John Force still going strong for a 140th triumph (including a final-round appearance Sunday in Funny Car). Warren Johnson and Greg Anderson still could add more to their totals of 97 and 74, respectively. Bob Glidden conceivably might pull a Michael Jordan and come out of retirement and earn an 86th victory. Larry Dixon, with 62, and an aggressive Jeg Coughlin with 56 might have something to say about the list. And of course, Pedregon easily could add to his 43, and Ron Capps is close behind at 41.

And they all are "somebodies" already.

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