CLERMONT, Ind — 18-for-969. That’s how many times the No. 15 seed has made it to the final round in a NHRA Championship Drag Racing Series Top Fuel event. For Antron Brown, the defending Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals winner would have happily taken the No. 15 seed on Sunday morning.

33 hours ago, Brown woke up on Sunday morning feeling uneasy. Through two days of action for the 69th annual Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals, he was on the outside looking in. Sunday gave two more opportunities at making the 16-car field for the annual Labor Day foray.

Unfortunately, the first round of qualifying didn’t lend a helping hand. Brown had one more shot. One opportunity. To do everything he ever wanted.

This is NHRA’s Super Bowl and Brown was facing elimination before it even began. If he didn’t improve his time enough on his final pass, then the defending winner would be on the sidelines on Monday.

He and his team were dealing with a clutch issue. They won the last time out in Brainerd and made a clutch change then that they thought would work here as well.

“It just wasn’t having it,” Brown admitted. “Everything that we thought we were doing was wrong. We kept making changes until the end.”

They finally hit on the right change. Brown was dressed ready to go. Staring down what could have been a colossal failure, Brown dug deep down and knew this final change was going to work. It was up to him to deliver.

On the ride to the staging area, there’s not much more you can do to your dragster. It is what is is now. With everything setup, Brown pulled his fire suit up, strapped on his helmet, hopped into his Top Fuel dragster and had one lone shot of making it in.

Jam the gas too hard, you’d spin the tires too much and sputter to a DNQ. Not jam it hard enough, he wouldn’t be quick. Jump the light, get a DQ. You had to be perfect.

This essentially was the first round of Brown’s US Nationals. He delivered. Brown, on his final leg, made it in.

Unfortunately, he was the No. 15 seed. That set up a final round rematch of last year’s race for which he topped Brittany Force. Now, Force was the No. 2 qualifier. Brown knew she had speed. She always does. Force was the No. 1 qualifier in the two years prior and made it to the final round in each. She was also the defending world champion.

Brown though was still confident. That final pass on Sunday, the one good enough to get him in, it was the sweet spot. This clutch was going to be one to help him go back-to-back.

“We knew we had it for raceday and we had a package we could tune on,” he said.

Brown delivered the upset in Round 1. He won by just .1323 in a .054 reaction time vs. .065 for the defending Top Fuel champion. That set up a battle with Clay Millican in Round 2. Millican, like Brown, struggled to get in and once he did, he was the 10th seed.

Brown topped Millican in becoming the first 15th seed to make the semis since 2000. He had to take on points leader Justin Ashley next.

Brown never flinched. He then became just the second No. 15 seed to ever make the finals here. Next up?

2021 US Nationals champion and four-time Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence. It was the top qualifier in Torrence against the second to last qualifier in Brown.

The route to the staging area this time was met with joy. Brown was playing with house money. In the final round matchup, Brown again delivered.

He did the unthinkable and topped Torrence for his fifth U.S. Nationals triumph becoming just the fourth driver ever to win an NHRA race from the 15th qualifying spot. The last time came back in 1997.

In fact, the No. 15 qualifier in Top Fuel competition has made it to the final round only 19 times now in 969 races. Brown has done it twice with both coming in 2023 at that.

“This is one that was a getting-dirty win,” Brown said. “We went through all the trials and tribulations and that’s what makes this one so special, that through all the pain, all the stuff all the way through qualifying. We found a way as a team.”

This is a story that will go down in drag racing lore and talked about for decades to come. The backdoor in, beating the last six years worth of Top Fuel champions in Force in Round 1 and Torrence in the finals. Sandwiched between was the current points leader.

Brown beat them all.

Only at Indy…