Antron Brown’s fast-paced rise in top fuel may not be unprecedented, but his success less than a year after transitioning from a decade of pro stock motorcycle racing is raising more than a few eyebrows.
His Matco Tools dragster has two wins in three finals this year, and Brown, who will be at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway this weekend, finds himself second in the top fuel standings. He is one of only two drivers — points leader Tony Schumacher the other — with multiple wins this season.
Brown admits to being pleasantly surprised by his early success.
“It took me, and I think a lot of people, by a little bit of surprise,” Brown said Tuesday in a phone interview. “We knew we were going to have some success. But the difference of it was we didn’t know it was going to be in that much of a short-term, how quick that it came.”
Brown credits his crew, most notably his Colorado native crew chief Lee Beard, for getting him up to speed.
“Lee has been driving the race vehicles, won numerous races,” Brown said. “He’s tuned so many people to world championships.
“He believed in me. You always have to have somebody believe in you and give you that shot. Lee Beard’s the one that always believed in me, and here we are working together, and it’s just been unreal.”
And Beard has no doubts a championship is in Brown’s future. The transition process was deliberate by design, as Beard wanted Brown to get used to driving a car.
“We didn’t have to teach him to be a racer,” Beard said. “What we had to do as a team was teach him how to drive the top fuel car successfully. We took an approach that we would never put him in a situation that would be over his head.”
Test drives in November and December gave way to longer runs in January. His first full run clocked 4.48 seconds.
“That’s a monster run for anybody,” Beard said. “He just did a fantastic job. So our approach to schooling him to be a top fuel driver we thought was the proper way to do it.”
In his first top fuel race, Brown was the top qualifier. His fourth start, at Baytown, Texas, netted his first win. His second win came at Commerce, Ga., a short time later. Brown is 18-8 this season.
“The transition has been going real smooth,” Brown said. “I’ve been trying to eliminate my rookie mistakes.”
Brown had won 16 times on the motorcycle circuit. There was talk that his switch to top fuel was a result of his pro stock motorcycle team disbanding. Brown denies it.
“We lost the U.S. Army sponsorship, but we still had the bike out there that was going to race,” he said. “So, I could have still had a job if I wanted to race a pro stock bike. I’ve been staying in bikes for the last three years because for one, you have to wait for somebody to give you the opportunity to drive a top fuel. And then two, I’ve never won a world championship in pro stock motorcycle.
“So, that’s what was kind of keeping me there. I did everything in pro stock bike but win a world championship and came close four times. So, I finally said, ‘You know what? I’m going to try to go for a top fuel championship.’ ”
Truex fined for failed inspection.
Martin Truex’s bid to make the Chase for the championship took a severe hit when NASCAR penalized his Dale Earnhardt Inc. team 150 points for bringing an illegal car to Daytona.
Truex’s car failed its initial inspection last week at Daytona because the No. 1 Chevrolet failed to fit NASCAR’s roof template. NASCAR officials seized the car and sent it to their Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., for further inspection.
The 150-point penalty drops Truex from 14th in the standings to 18th. The top 12 drivers make the Chase, and Truex has just eight races to get back into contention.
In addition, crew chief Kevin “Bono” Manion and car chief Gary Putnam were suspended from the next six races and placed on probation until the end of the year. Manion was also fined $100,000.
Also, multiple Internet reports suggested team owner Teresa Earnhardt is trying to sell all or part of the race team that was founded by her late husband, seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt.
Navy bailing from Earnhardt’s No. 88.
The Navy is leaving the No. 88 Chevrolet in the Nationwide Series at the end of the season, forcing Dale Earnhardt Jr. to search for funding for the flagship car at JR Motorsports.
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
