Top Fuel champion Antron Brown has feel for speed

PASADENA, Calif. — Antron Brown, the drag racing champion, joined his lunch party late at Ruth’s Chris Steak House last week and exclaimed, “I almost missed a great salad!’’

Then he grabbed a fork and dug into the mountain of mixed greens like it was a 16-ounce New York Strip, offering a glimpse at what helps fuel the first African American to win a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) championship. He tries to keep his body as finely tuned as the 7,000-horsepower dragster he races in the Top Fuel division.

Brown, 40, said he employs two personal trainers. He likens the fitness work he does to the work his nine-person crew does on the car that can cover a 1,000-foot drag strip in less than four seconds and reach speeds above 325 mph.

“As they’re working hard in the shop, finessing parts, finessing new technology, I’m in the gym putting that same work in,’’ Brown told Paste BN Sports, noting that he focuses on strength, agility and quickness. “When you do the type of training that I do, you come to the track and you have a whole different type of aura about you."

It’s the aura of dominance.

This past weekend, for the second year in a row, Brown arrived at Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., already having clinched the Top Fuel championship, his third in the past five years. John Force, a 16-time NHRA champion, said Brown already ranks among the top drivers in the sport’s history.

“What I really find unique is as he’s evolved he never breaks under pressure," Force said. “It doesn’t matter who he’s racing.”

Brown, who learned to race on motorbikes while growing up in New Jersey, said his steadiness on the track stems from what he learned racing on foot.

A sprinter in junior college, Brown said he ran a blazing 6.72 seconds in 55 meters. He said he took track training methods with him when he gave up a track scholarship to Long Island University in 1998 and embarked on a career in the NHRA.

Strength, quickness and agility have enabled him to maintain consistency over the multiple rounds in the drag racing competitions. He invoked the names of Tiger Woods and LeBron James as other examples when endurance elevates elite athletes.

“My personal opinion is to be great at something, you have to be able to execute it every time,” he said.

During the offseason, Brown said, he is in the gym up to twice a day five days a week. During the season, he is in the gym up to three days a week despite a demanding schedule.

“I have a natural ability that I choose to enhance and polish and make it better,’’ he said. “I’ve never plateaued.”

Indeed, whether Brown is on the track or at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, these appear to be his salad days.