Antron Brown recently told National Dragster that he learned from working at his family's septic-tank service company that "I don’t want to be No. 1 in the 'No. 2' business."

It turns out he's No. 1 in the No. 4 business.

The Matco Tools / U.S. Army / Toyota Dragster driver cruised to the final foursome victory Sunday over Steve Torrence, Richie Crampton and Clay Millican to earn his second straight NHRA Four-Wide Nationals triumph at zMAX Dragway.

He's No. 1 in the Top Fuel standings, too. He's 26 points ahead of second-place Tony Schumacher, and previous points leader Shawn Langdon is third as the series shifts back out West to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the April 10-12 SummitRacing.com Nationals.  

After his winning 3.749-second pass at 319.90 mph on the 1,000-foot course at Concord, N.C., Brown said, "It has been an incredible run for us at this race. The reason we love coming here is because the fans get really, really excited about it and plus this is the only time we come out and have a battle royal with nitro cars. It's pretty incredible, pretty insane, a lot going on. 

"What made it so challenging is you have to run a four-lane racetrack, and we had two runs [because of rain] to try and get used to four lanes," he said. "It really helps out with our multiple teams at DSR. We can lean on our other two dragsters, who had different lanes than we had, and we lean on our Funny Car guys.

"You want to dig deep, and you want to win races like this. To sneak out with it this year, it was definitely a long road. We've been fighting some new combinations, some gremlins in our Matco car. To lay the gauntlet down that last run, it felt really good to go out there and bring the win home for all of 1,600-plus [Matco Tools] distributors- and for our boss-man. How about that?"

This 48th career victory, his 32nd in the Top Fuel class, was Brown's first victory of the 2015 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. (He has won at least one Top Fuel event in each year since switching from the Pro Stock Motorcycle category in 2008.)

With Jack Beckman breaking his 54-race Funny Car winless streak, this victory gave Don Schumacher Racing its 247th total, its third consecutive double-nitro triumph in this year's four races, and its 44th race in which the organization has claimed two or more pro trophies at a single event.  

"Don has put all the right people in all the right places. We are able to lean on each other. Our deal is we have an open door policy. We have grown as a tight knit unit and we've been able to grow together. We work hard together. We learn together," Brown said.

Slogging through the chaos of the four-wide format reminded Brown once again that perseverance pays off.

"It wasn't easy, but we kept working to get better and in the end, it was our day," he said. "That final round was remarkable.  I can't say enough about [crew chiefs] Mark Oswald and Brian Corradi and the entire Matco Tools/Army Toyota team. They did an incredible job. There’s no hiding that we've been struggling a little bit early in the season. We’re just working hard and going one race at a time."

Brown acknowledged the resurfacing project at zMAX since the NHRA's fall visit here that ended in a huge economic hit for track owner Bruton Smith as eliminations for the Countdown opener were carried over to the Dallas race.

"Our hat's off to Bruton Smith and the whole zMAX crew. To re-do a whole racetrack, that's how much they care about our sport and NHRA," Brown said. "We had green lanes that some people never even ran down and . . . to have the quality of racing we did out there this weekend is pretty remarkable. That's a true testimony to how hard they work. That's why these stands were jam-packed on Saturday and Sunday. I know it was cold . . . and when you see the fans out there, that makes it something special."

In the opening round of Sunday's eliminations, No. 8 starter Brown was in a foursome with No. 1 qualifier JR Todd, 2012 champion and points leader Shawn Langdon, and class rookie and consensus victory-waiting-to-happen Dave Connolly.

"That first quad was like an all-star event, and then you go into the next round and it's stacked up again," Brown said. 

He won the first round with a 3.771-second lap at 313 mph and advanced to the second round along with Connolly. The second quad turned into a pedalfest, as teams were pushing the envelope on an 80-degree racetrack with air temperatures in the 50s.

"All of us knew what we had to run, and we pushed the racetrack too hard, because none of us made it 60 feet," he said.

Connolly's engine blew up as he stepped on the throttle, giving Bob Vandergriff Racing its second straight spectacular disaster in as many events.

"We were trying to run a 3.72 like the Sarge (Tony Schumacher) does. We snuck around that round and came back for the final. Brian and Mark made the right call, and we ran low E.T. of that round and we did what we needed to do to win that race."

And winning races and being No. 1 at the drag-racing business, he knows, will keep him from being No. 2 at anything.
 

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