Brown beats Schumacher in Top Fuel, Gafforini takes Bullring events

BRAINERD, Minn. -- Antron Brown raced to his fourth win of the season in Top Fuel on Sunday at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway.

Johnny Gray (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and LE Tonglet (Pro Stock Motorcycle) were also winners at the 15th of 22 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Brown powered his dragster past his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher in the final round to collect the win. His run of 3.844 seconds at a top speed of 319.22 mph proved strong enough to secure his 29th career victory.

It also moved him up to the second spot in the points standings with just one race remaining until the start of the six-race playoffs to determine the champions in each category.

While Brown moved up in the standings, Top Fuel pilot Brandon Bernstein clinched his berth in the Countdown to the Championship with his second- round finish.

Former Pro Stock driver Gray raced to his first Funny Car win. Gray's run of 4.113 seconds at a top speed of 307.02 in his Dodge Charger was strong enough to get past Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps.

Anderson drove his Pontiac GXP to a 6.599 at 209.26 to get his fourth win of the season and 69th of his career, over Erica Enders.

■ LOCAL -- At Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Bullring, Scott Gafforini of Las Vegas swept the two NASCAR Super Late Model features Saturday night.

In both races, Gafforini found himself dueling late with Robert Ewing.

In other classes: Jason Kiser captured the NASCAR Bomber feature for his third victory of the season; Patrick O'Hanley won the 30-lap NASCAR Charger feature; Dustin Ash won the Thunder Roadster feature by a nose over Robert D'Ambra; Justin Irwin scored his sixth win of the year in Legend Cars; the twin USAC Focus Midget features were won by Brodie Kostecki and Garrett Peterson; Kayli Barker won the Bandolero Outlaw feature; and Matt Emery won his fourth Bandolero Bandit feature of the season.