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Three-time Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown bounced back from a challenging two days of qualifying at the ����ǿ�� Thunder Valley Nationals by taking his Matco Tools entry to the final at Bristol Dragway. In the process, Brown claimed his 800th round-win, joining a short list of just five other drivers who have accomplished that feat.

Brown reached the milestone in the semifinal round, where he used a 3.73 run to top Doug Kalitta. Brown’s 800 career wins have come in both Pro Stock Motorcycle and Top Fuel.

John Force remains the only driver with more than 1,000 round-wins and is the runaway leader with 1,432 round victories in his long and prosperous career. Force is followed by Greg Anderson (919), Warren Johnson (874), Tony Schumacher (871), Ron Capps (866), and Brown (800). To put that number in perspective, there are 82 rounds of competition for Top Fuel and Funny Car racers this season, so a driver would have to go undefeated for nearly a decade in order to reach 800 round-wins.

Brown, who’s won at every other track on the current ����ǿ�� schedule except Bristol Dragway, went into the final round seeking his first win in Thunder Valley. Brown and Toyota teammate Justin Ashley were separated by just one-thousandth of a second at the starting line. They were just thousandths apart at the 330-foot marker too, but Brown lost traction after that while Ashley raced ahead to a 3.718 e.t. for the win.

��“We thought we could go out there and go .71. That was what we were shooting for,” Brown said. “Justin did it. We were already a hundredth quicker at the 60-foot mark, and with the calculations, that means we could have run about 15-thousandths quicker. If we would have run 15 thousandths quicker, we would have run a 3.715. That is what we were shooting for. We got a little greedy.”

Brown went into the weekend seventh in points, and he leaves Bristol tied for fifth with seven races left in the regular season.
“Great weekend for a rebound in points,” Brown said. “We just have to keep doing it. Our main focus is the Western Swing. Hit the swing hard and come back and make a strong push all of the way to Indy and see if we can move up some spots and get ready for the Countdown to the Championship.”

The next racer who is likley to reach 800 wins is Top Fuel's Doug Kalitta, who currently has 744 victories.