SONOMA — Sunday’s final eliminations at the 36th annual Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway began with one of the biggest upsets of the season, ended with a dream match-up of marquee stars and featured just about everything else in between, as Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Bob Tasca III (Funny Car), Aaron Stanfield (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) all notched exciting victories.

With no wind, temperatures in the mid-70s all day and the race strip elevation at Sonoma just above sea level, conditions were optimum for high speeds on Sunday.

Despite only qualifying seventh in the 14-car Top Fuel field, Brown was the model of consistency on Sunday, as he marched through the field posting four consecutive runs under 3.8 seconds to earn his record-tying fifth win at Sonoma and 77th of his career.

“Sonoma has a special meaning to me. It’s like a piece of heaven out, here and just being here puts me in the zone,” Brown said. “This is my favorite track. I love coming here.”

Brown’s task was made a bit easier when Doug Kalitta, the reigning TF champion, 2024 season points leader and fast qualifier of the weekend, was shockingly upset in the very first race of the day by Ron August Jr., the lowest seed in the field who had only managed one previous-round win in his career.

Brown defeated Shawn Reed, Steve Torrence and Brittany Force before facing off against former NASCAR Cup and IndyCar champion Tony Stewart in the final race of the day. Stewart, who began his drag racing career last season in a Top Alcohol Dragster, reached his first final in Top Fuel by defeating Shawn Langdon, Justin Ashley and Ron August Jr.

Stewart was able to beat the veteran off the line, but Brown’s 11,000-horsepower Matco Tools/Toyota dragster ran him down just before the finish line with a 3.746-seconds at 329.67 mph pass versus Stewart’s losing 3.774/321.73 effort.

“Me and Tony know each other well. He was also a hero of mine when he ran NASCAR and IndyCar. I know how good of a driver he is. His time is coming, and it won’t be just one win,” said Brown, who now has three wins this season. “My team gave me a bad hot rod. I was a little late on the tree, but the car made up for it. My team stays poised, and they were incredible all weekend. We went down the track every single lap.”

In Funny Car, Bob Tasca III, driving his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang, was almost as dominant, as he posted his third win of the season by holding off Ron Capps in his with a the final round with a 4.088 at 277.15 pass, while Capps overpowered the track and smoked his tires at mid-track.

After blistering the track on Friday night with a 338-mph run to qualify No. 1 for Sunday, Tasca followed that up with a weekend-best run of 3.875/338.77 in the opening round against Buddy Hull. He disposed of Paul Lee in round two, and then knocked off season-points leader Austin Prock in a hole shot by posting a 3.931/336.15 run with an .022 reaction time, to reach the final round, while Capps advanced by taking out heavyweights Cruz Pedregon, defending event winner J.R. Todd and reigning world champion Matt Hagan.

“It’s so hard to win these things, and that’s a testament to my crew. They pulled it back and still ran 337 mph. It takes a thousand things to go right to win, but only one thing to go wrong to lose,” said Tasca, who won previously at Sonoma in 2022 and now has 17 career wins overall. “I was a bit surprised in the final. It was pulling great, and then it knocked the tires off. You have no idea how that feels. I looked out the side window, because I expected him to come by me, but, fortunately, I got it to recover.”
In Pro Stock, Aaron Stanfield won for the third time in four races, while taking down first-time Pro Stock finalist Cory Reed in the championship round with a 6.540/209.98 run. Previously, he took out Mason McGaha, defending world champion Erica Enders and No. 1 qualifier Greg Anderson for his second career win at Sonoma Raceway 11th overall.

“This is a great win. We didn’t have a great ladder since all the hitters seemed to be on one side,” admitted Stanfield. “We knew it was going to be a tough task, but ultimately a good day, man, it feels good.”

Six-time Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion Matt Smith earned his first win of the season by taking out teammate John Hall in the final round on his Denso Auto Parts Buell. Hall left the starting line first, but Smith was able to chase him down to post the 39th victory of his career.

“It’s all in the 60-foot area. Our class is so dependent on that, 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 going.”

Smith, who qualified No. 1, also set a track record with a perfect 6.655 seconds run, won the GETTRX Pro Stock Motorcycle All-Star Callout on Saturday.

The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series next heads to Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals on Aug. 15-18. That will be followed by the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis before starting the six-race Countdown to the Championship in September.