August 22, 2004

Brown scored his first Pro Stock Bike win in just over a year when final-round foe Matt Smith, a first-time finalist competing in just his 13th NHRA event, jumped the Christmas Tree by a hundredth of a second. Considering Brown went on to post a 7.264 at 182.60 mph to Smith's 7.421 at 175.75 mph, it was probably worth Smith taking a shot at the Tree just to see if he could steal the victory against a bike with a clear performance advantage.

This was the third final of the year for Brown and the 22nd of his career. The last time he tasted victory was at the 2003 Brainerd event. This victory moved Brown into second place in the championship points, 186 off the lead.

"Our team's been so awesome," Brown said. "The bike's been there but we haven't gotten the wins. I've doubted myself a little bit. I get to the final and then either red-light or I'm sleeping. I'm like, what can I do? I needed to get like a bracket racer and just hammer out .020 lights.

"We stayed poised today. I think it's because I didn't sleep well so I've been tired all day. When it's like that I tend not to get too amped up and make mistakes. We just wanted to try and run mid-7.20s and go heads up, may the best man or woman win."

Brown's U.S. Army Suzuki carried him past Kurt Matte, Shawn Gann, teammate Angelle Savoie, and Smith. Riding hard, Brown averaged a .015 reaction time on the day.