ANTRON BROWN WINS THIRD RACE OF 2024 SEASON AT SONOMA NATIONALS
Toyota captures 12th Top Fuel win in last 13 races
SONOMA, Calif. (July 28, 2024) – For the third time in 2024, the fifth time at Sonoma Raceway and the 77th time in his career, Antron Brown was triumphant in the Sonoma NHRA Nationals Sunday afternoon. Brown ran through a gauntlet of challengers on Sunday, including former world champions Steve Torrence and Brittany Force, along with Tony Stewart in the finals, to capture the Wally Trophy and gain ground on those in front of him in the Top Fuel points standings. Securing his fifth win at Sonoma ties Brown for the track record with Toyota teammate Doug Kalitta.
Additionally with Brown’s victory, Toyota now has 12 Top Fuel wins in the last 13 NHRA events.
In Funny Car, Ron Capps made the final round at his home track, but fell in the end to event winner, Bob Tasca III. On the way to his second finals appearance of the season, Capps reached a milestone 900 career round wins in his legendary career. J.R. Todd advanced to the second round on Sunday but was defeated by Capps. Alexis DeJoria was eliminated in the first round.
With the finals appearances by Brown and Capps, Toyota has now reached the final round in 35 consecutive NHRA events in either Top Fuel and/or Funny Car.
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is off for a few weeks before getting back on track at Brainerd International Raceway August 16-18 for the penultimate race before the Countdown to the Championship.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series
NHRA Sonoma Nationals
Sonoma Raceway
Race 12 of 20
TOYOTA TOP FUEL FINISHING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Final Result | Round-by-Round |
| Antron Brown | Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Winner | W (3.728) v. S. Reed (4.192) W (3.747 – holeshot) v. S. Torrence (3.747) W (3.732) v. B. Force (4.692) W (3.746) v. T. Stewart (3.774) |
| Billy Torrence | CAPCO Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Second Round | W (3.662) v. J. Salinas (3.702) L (4.059) v. B. Force (3.746) |
| Steve Torrence | CAPCO Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Second Round | W (3.693) v. C. Millican (4.245) L (3.747) v. A. Brown (3.747 – holeshot) |
| Justin Ashley | SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Second Round | W (3.701) v. T. Schumacher (8.495) L (4.415) v. T. Stewart (3.781) |
| Shawn Langdon | Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | First Round | L (3.845) v. T. Stewart (3.740) |
| Doug Kalitta | Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | First Round | L (4.030) v. R. August Jr. (3.985) |
TOYOTA FUNNY CAR FINISHING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Final Result | Round-by-Round |
| Ron Capps | NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | Finalist | W (3.869) v. C. Pedregon (3.913) W (3.907) v. J. Todd (3.943) W (3.923) v. M. Hagan (3.933) L (4.729) v. B. Tasca III (4.088) |
| J.R. Todd | DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | Second Round | W (3.894) v. J. Rupert (4.732) L (3.943) v. R. Capps (3.907) |
| Alexis DeJoria | Bandero Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | First Round | L (4.191) v. P. Lee (3.906) |
*= Non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
ANTRON BROWN, Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, AB Motorsports
TF Final Result: Winner
After this win, how competitive is your team at this stage of the season?
“We’re very competitive, we can race with anybody. But the thing about it is, we stay humble, we stay hungry. And man, the Lord gets all the credit. I have some of my AB Motorsports Accelerate drivers here, some quarter midget (drivers) out here in Northern California. One thing is, (we) have to stay poised. My team is incredible. They have a bad hot rod. Fell a little short on the tree, but they make it up down the race track. So pumped for Brian (Corradi, co-crew chief), Mark (Oswald, co-crew chief), Brad (Mason, car chief), all our Mac Tools, Lucas Oil boys. Great job, Toyota. They helped us on this race track. It was tricky all this weekend, but we went down track every lap, so that’s an awesome, awesome team. I love you guys. God bless you and we have some more coming!”
RON CAPPS, NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports
FC Final Result: Finalist
Summarize your day for us.
“Man, what a weekend! So proud of our NAPA Auto Care team. We had a great event with Gearwrench Tools and to be able to showcase their car, and to have the weekend we had, going to the final round, is the reason I brag about our NAPA Auto Care team. To go down every round that we did, under power to make great runs. And we had lane choice all day long and that’s something really to brag about. Really proud of Guido (Dean Antonelli, crew chief) and the guys. We have a few weekends off. We’re heading to Night Under Fire (in Norwalk, Ohio), which is something we always look forward to next weekend. And then, we’ll head up to one of my favorite places in Brainerd and by that time, we’ll have the car we damaged in Seattle fixed and will see if we can continue moving up the Mission Foods points.”
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