Defending event winner Antron Brown picked up a victory in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge on Saturday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, holding off Tony Stewart, Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta to win the specialty race as part of the 24th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals.
Austin Prock (Funny Car) and Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) also won the specialty race at the fourth of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
In the Top Fuel Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday, Brown was the quickest in the talent-filled quad, going 3.792-seconds at 330.72 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Matco Tools dragster. It’s the second win in the specialty race for Brown, who won the 4-Wide Nationals a year ago in Las Vegas. In a quad that also included Stewart, Langdon and Kalitta, Brown drove around Kalitta and then held off Langdon, who went 3.798, to win as part of what the three-time world champ hopes is a double-up weekend.
“I felt Shawn around the side of us and then something happened to him right around half track and I felt us inching and inching and we drove just a little bit around them,” Brown said. “It's so incredible how tight this class is. When you have Doug Kalitta, the world champion, Shawn Langdon, a previous Top Fuel champion, then you got Tony Stewart in the final round, they’re all cars that can win on any given Sunday."
Funny Car’s Austin Prock enjoyed another impressive first in his new class, winning his first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday, going 3.915 at 326.95 in his 11,000-horsepower Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS. He swept both the specialty race and qualifying, getting the Mission #2Fast2Tasty win by defeating Paul Lee, Blake Alexander and Daniel Wilkerson. A week after picking up his first Funny Car win, Prock added another big moment in his Funny Car career in the first four-wide Mission #2Fast2Tasty race.
"To get the first four-wide win, that's pretty special,” Prock said. “I've been in a handful of these things [in Top Fuel] and never been able to get it done, but we did the job today. Yesterday wasn't terrible on the tree but wasn't really what I want it to be and today I just have a new aim, new focus and it worked and I had two pretty stellar lights today."
Returning to full-time racing in the Pro Stock ranks, Jeg Coughlin Jr. enjoyed a strong showing on Saturday, winning for the first time in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge with a run of 6.628 at 207.62 in his SCAG Power Equipment car. Coughlin posted an impressive .022 reaction time and followed with a strong run to hold off a talented quad that also included Troy Coughlin Jr., Aaron Stanfield and Dallas Glenn. J. Coughlin was the lone veteran of the group but powered past the trio to claim the specialty event win.
“Any win is very special. But being out of the car for a couple years and getting one here in qualifying at Las Vegas feels great,” Coughlin said. "Mission Foods has done so much for NHRA Drag Racing, starting the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge last year and now the Mission Foods Drag Racing series.
“We had a pretty mean quad between Aaron Stanfield, myself, Dallas Glenn and Troy Jr. We needed all the Elite Performance that I had under the hood to turn on the win light. We’ve been building some momentum the last couple of weeks. I think a lot of great things are going on and we’re just looking to game day now.”
Eliminations for the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals begin at 12 p.m. PT on Sunday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
