Antron Brown makes history at NHRA Sonoma Nationals, captures fifth title at Sonoma Raceway

Another year, another fantastic NHRA stop at Sonoma.

The 2024 DENSO Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway ended with a bang on Sunday, with history being made, legendary faces making deep runs, and upsets galore.

Antron Brown won his fifth title at Sonoma in the top fuel category, tied for most at the track. Brown overcame NASCAR legend Tony Stewart in the final, running a time of 3.746 seconds to claim his third win of the year, and 77th overall.

“This racetrack has special meaning to me here,” Brown said. “Coming out here, it’s just one of those things where you want to do well. This is also the race and the time of year where you have to start peaking. If you don’t get going around this time, the countdown to the championship is going to be really rough. And that’s what we come here to do, we’re racing.”

Brown opened the day with a win over Shawn Reed, with a time of 3.728 seconds. A time of 3.747 seconds was good enough to top Steve Torrence in the next round, and that would see him matchup with longtime foe Britanny Force in the semifinals.

To make the final, Brown had a reaction time of .066 seconds and ran a 3.732, his second-fastest time of the day. With a track temperature of just over 93 degrees, he was just as hot.

In the funny car category, Bob Tasca III finished first in qualifying and stuck with that top spot all the way through. His win at Sonoma is the first since 2022, and his 18th title in the funny car.

In the final, he beat Ron Capps, who had quite the day of his own. Both drivers ran below four seconds the entire day, but in the end, it was a time of 4.088 seconds that gave Tasca III some well-deserved wine.

“Ron ran a great weekend,” Tasca III said. “He knew what we ran, and we knew what he ran, and we figured if we ran what we ran in Q4 (fourth round of qualifying) we could probably beat him. It was one of those things where we had to set the car up to run as quickly as it could on that track, and if he outruns us, I’ll be the first to go over and congratulate him. That’s kind of how we approached it.”

Tasca III ran a 3.875 in his opener, 3.912 in the second round, and 3.931 to reach the final. He had to beat points leader Austin Prock and dark horse Paul Lee to reach the championship race.

Back in the lineup this year after a year-long hiatus from wine country, the pro stock category was just as entertaining as the others. Aaron Stanfield took the title with a run of 6.540 seconds over Cory Reed.

“It was ultimately a good day,” Stanfield said of the win. “The ladder stacked up where a lot of the heavy hitters were on one side, so we knew it was going to be a tough task. But man, it feels good.”

In the pro stock motorcycle category, six-time world champion Matt Smith was as consistent as they come, taking the win in his 78th final round. He beat teammate John Hall in the final with a 6.700-second run.

Smith, who qualified first, beat Eiji Kawakami in the opener before clashing with Chase Van Sant. Smith ran a 6.711 to reach the final.

“This class is so dependent on 60-foots right now, and that’s where we’ve had to get better in our program,” Smith said. “We stumbled onto something that really paid off for here, so hats off to our whole team. It’s one of those things where we got the tune-up right off the bat and kept on doing it.”

The NHRA circuit will continue on Aug. 15, when it heads to Minnesota for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. That will be followed by the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis before starting the Countdown to the Championship in September.

You can reach Staff Writer Kienan O’Doherty at 415-887-8650 or kienan.odoherty@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @kodoherty22.