Anton Brown, Justin Ashley Form Multi-Level Top Fuel Partnership

For nearly the past two years, it’s been known that three-time NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Top Fuel champion, and former Pro Stock Motorcycle standout Antron Brown is starting his own team, AB Motorsports. The COVID-19 pandemic brought a pause to this start-up but, with the 2021 season complete and ch-ch-changes throughout NHRA’s nitro ranks, AB Motorsports is ready to spread its wings and become more than a one-driver enterprise.

On Tuesday, December 7th, both Antron Brown and Justin Ashley announced they’ve formed a multi-faceted alliance that will allow both entities to be enriched through shared experiences. Ashley, 26, who has shared ownership of his one-car Justin Ashley Racing Top Fuel team with Dustin Davis’ Davis Motorsports and is the 2020 NHRA Rookie of the year, together with Brown’s AB Motorsports are forming a Research and Development and Marketing alliance between their two organizations.

Both drivers are thoroughly marketable, Ashley through his youth and quick success, and their alliance will add to both drivers’ abilities to enjoin and keep partners that are good for the sport and for both teams. Both AB Motorsports and Justin Ashley Racing/Davis Motorsports use an enclosed cockpit, which will aid their technical work together and both have two truly successful crew chiefs at their helms: Brian Corradi for AB Motorsports and Mike Green with Justin Ashley Racing/Davis Motorsports.

For Brown, taking the helm of his own team for the first time since he began racing Pro Stock Motorcycle in 1998, taking on the dual role of owner/driver of the Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel dragster is vital to having long-time friend Ashley, who has shared ownership interest for two seasons, along with Dustin Davis, in the Vita C Shot Top Fuel dragster team, as a partner. “The goal with this partnership is to make both of our programs stronger overall,” Brown said. Ranked in the NHRA Top 10 for the 24th straight year, Brown knows that “even though we’re two separate teams with two separate operations, having this partnership will allow us to enjoy many of the advantages that multi-car teams have.

“It’s not just about the collaboration between our brain trust of crew chiefs,” Brown acknowledged, “but this will also help us in being able to secure the best parts and pieces. We’ll have stronger purchasing power. We’re both looking to this alliance to help us compete on a high level and go toe-to-toe with the heavy hitters in our category.”

This research and development alliance includes sharing on-track data as well as consultation between the teams during and between NHRA’s 2022 national events. Additionally, Ashley will benefit from Brown’s long-running, 14-year partnership with Toyota. Through this alliance, Ashley and his team will have access to engineering and on-track technical assistance at every one of NHRA’s 22 Camping World national events.

Away from the dragstrips and the trackside NHRA community, both Brown and Ashley are looking forward to working together to present programs to potential partners and to create one of the most marketable one-two punches in the straight-line arena.

“I’m excited to be joining forces with Antron and his team,” Ashley said. “This alliance is going to improve the performance of both our programs on and off the racetrack. My team has made great strides the past two seasons with our Vita C Shot Top Fuel dragster and now is the time to keep moving forward in an effort to establish a high level of success for years to come. Getting our crew chiefs together to share on-track and off-track technical information is invaluable, and when it comes to marketing, working together opens the door to so many possibilities for our existing partners and any new relationships we start in 2022 and beyond.”

For those keeping track at home, the addition of Ashley to the Toyota Top Fuel family makes for a powerhouse of racers: four-time and reigning champ Steve Torrence, his father Billy Torrence, Kalitta Motorsports’ Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon were already set to compete under the Toyota banner, along with Brown. The addition of Ashley to this group makes it a win-win situation for the Japanese manufacturer.

About Anne Proffit 1237 Articles
Anne Proffit traces her love of racing - in particular drag racing - to her childhood days in Philadelphia, where Atco Dragway, Englishtown and Maple Grove Raceway were destinations just made for her. As a diversion, she was the first editor of IMSA’s Arrow newsletter, and now writes about and photographs sports cars, Indy cars, Formula 1, MotoGP, NASCAR, Formula Drift, Red Bull Global Rallycross - in addition to her first love of NHRA drag racing. A specialty is a particular admiration for the people that build and tune drag racing engines.

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