The Dale Jr. Download - Antron Brown’s Journey to 4 NHRA Championships and Owning AB Motorsports

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

Kelley Earnhardt Miller is joined in this episode ofBusiness of Motorsports by Antron Brown, a 4-time NHRA Top Fuel Champion and the successful team owner of AB Motorsports.In this interview, Antron Brown shares his incredible journey from New Jersey to becoming an NHRA Top Fuel legend. From his family’s humble roots in racing to earning four championships, Antron reflects on the hard work, leadership, and sacrifices that fueled his rise in NHRA racing. He also discusses his early days as a Pro Stock Bike racer, the bold decision to start AB Motorsports, the challenges of owning a team in motorsports, and his future plans to mentor the next generation of racers. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Welcome to the business of motorsports. It is yours truly, Kelly Earnhardt Miller. You know, one thing that I really hope that this series does is open up people's horizons. I got in a lot of trouble and I got challenged. I don't know why you're coming here. You don't trust us. I said, no, it's not I don't trust you.

I'm running a business. A lot of people kind of feel like, well, we're, We're never getting back to where we were. Why do we ever get to where we were? There's so much more involved in decision. I mean, I want to rip somebody's head off every day. I say yes to me.

Oh, you say yes on the phone. Well, you made me say. All right, welcome to the Dirty Moe Studio for another episode of Business of Motorsports. Extremely excited to have four-time NHRA top fuel champion Antron Brown with me. How are you doing today? I'm doing good, Kelly, doing good, just ready to go, just got in from a long, long, long, long race season.

But the off season, been all over the place, but it's been a lot of great things happening. Good. Well, you're coming off a championship, so that makes things extra busy. As I know, we're also champions this year for junior motorsports. So I can imagine how busy it's been. It is. That's a good busy, though. It is a good busy.

When the foes don't rowing and people don't want, you and you don't need to be here, there, or everywhere, that's when you start going, hold it, what's happening? Yeah, what's happening? What's wrong with this? Well, we're going to dive into a lot today. I'm super excited. You know, this is kind of above and beyond a normal business of motorsports for me because

obviously I've talked to a lot of people in NASCAR. So super excited to talk about NHRA, talk about your team, talk about your story. So let's just hit it hard and start at the top in terms of growth. in terms of growing up. You're a Jersey boy. So tell me a little bit about growing up in New Jersey and eventually getting to how you got involved in racing. Well, I got to grow up in New Jersey

and I got into racing because my dad and uncle were racers. They were sportsmen racers, weekend warrior. We worked hard Monday through Friday and we used all the money that we made during the week and spent on racing at the drag strip. And that's how I learned. And like you got to put the work in. to get what you want out.

And my grandpa literally preached to us all the time and saying you can have anything you want in life as long as you put the work in for it. And I think that's where my foundation started as a kid. And I remember, like yesterday, we was going to a racetrack. We used to gauge people on how hard they worked by how they showed up. If you just showed up driving your race car to the drag strip, they're like, hey, they just barely making it.

You came on, you know how it is? You came in with that open bed, trailer, they're like, all right, they got their stuff together a little bit. They came in that rollback, you know, the rollback record, you know that, you know that, they had money. They either had a mechanic shop or they had a body shop, right? And then when you saw the people that rolled in the enclosed trailers, that was big money. They were the stiffest competition, huh? You know it. You know they had all the right parts and pieces, but the thing is, if they had the talent to drive, that was it. That was it. Absolutely. That's kind of how we grew up. Like growing up in New Jersey, just my family had their own excavating business and septic tank service. So I grew up, you know, working skid stairs, tracos, dumb trucks, working a rotor machines that clog out the drains on the outside the house and going there pumping out people's septic tanks. Like I never forget our model on their trucks. We're number one and the number two business.

And your family still has that business today, right? Yeah. Yes, they do. Yes. Yes. they do and I never forget like my uncle and my dad used to come out watch me early in my career and I remember they go boy you work hard like you're out there all day long sign of order grass smiling at the fans and everything else I never forget I used to look at them I go well look I don't want to fail in here because I don't want to go back being number one number two business I want to be number one on the racetracks if I would be number one race track I got to go ahead and do my diligence and keep and keep everybody happy if I keep them happy that means I can

racing and if I keep racing, that I can keep paying the bills. That's funny. What when did you, what age did you start racing? You know, from a NASCAR perspective, you know, it's all over the board. I'm curious, you know, in the drag racing biz, like, what age do you get in cars or what kind of cars? Well, believe it or not, when I was growing up as a kid, they didn't have nothing at the entry level to do. Like they have junior dragsters now. You can start out five years old. That It didn't come in effect until I was like 19 years old. But I was, when I was growing up as a kid, we had an excavating business, and we grew up on about 15 acres of farmland in New Jersey, believe or not, in South Jersey. I grew up racing motocross.

I started racing dirt bikes, riding dirt bikes when I was four, started racing them on and off when I was six to ten. And I started racing them full board when I was 12 years old, like all over the place in a tri-state area. Like Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. So it was five areas. So for me, that's when it really started for me. But when you dropped the gate on dirt bike, it's a drag race to the first corner. And that taught me discipline on, like, throttle control, how to have technique and how to do different things. And it taught me how to do anything from driving go-carts to drag-race and race cars to everything like that.

Learn that technique from that motorcross bike really helped transcend me to any other sport that I wanted to do in motorsports. Now you also were a runner for track, right? Yes. You had to make a big decision there, didn't you? Between track and racing, because you had a path. I did have a path, and the track deal came after I got hurt really bad racing motorcross. Okay. So I started playing more sticking ball sports doing that stuff because I was going to school.

And so let me try to be like a regular kid, athletic kid in school, but I still race motorcross. but not every weekend. You know what I mean? And I never forget that I was always a quick kid on my feet. And I went to track and got a full scholarship at a junior college. And I could have pretty much went to almost pretty much anywhere I wanted to for track and field for my last two years at any big school across the country. Pretty much I was ranked number one in the country for the 55 meter indoor dash at the Juico college.

I set the record where I ran a 6.27 seconds in the 55 meter indoors. And then from there, I ran 100 meters in like 10-5, 10-4, and back then I pretty much pre-qualified for the Olympic trials to do the 100 meters and stuff like that. So like to go running the trials, not to run in the Olympics, but to go and see if I can make the Olympic team and run on that top-tier collegiate level. And I dedicated myself.

I worked out hard, and I was just going up that forum where whatever I, I competed in, I always went out beyond because I never wanted to be average. I always wanted to be elite. And what that takes is that takes to work. That takes the work that people don't want to put in. It's not just going to practice. It's doing the work outside the practice to make you better. I just heard a statistic earlier today, or maybe it was yesterday, that you need to put in 10,000 hours for something to be an expert in it. That's what you're talking about. That's the hard work, you know? I was thinking of. I was thinking about 10,000 hours, you know, if we think about our work week at 20,80 hours for a 40-hour

work week a year, you know, that's five good years to become an expert in something for the most part. You know, if you did it eight hours a day, five days a week, right? That's hard work. That's a lot of work. Yes, it is. And the thing about is you got to do something that you're passionate about, that you're driven about. Because when you're doing that and you have that wheelhouse in you like that, it's the time doesn't make a difference. You're willing to put the time in. And

you're willing to do the things that takes you to go to the next level. And it's getting yourself very uncomfortable. If you want to be great at something, you've got to put yourself out there to get uncomfortable. And then when you get used to being uncomfortable, that's when you start breaking barriers and breaking levels and you start

leveling up, is what I call it. It's like you level up because don't get real when you're doing all this. You're going to make mistakes along the way. But when you're making those mistakes, you're learning how to excel at what you're trying to do. And then when you look back, you go, man, look what I've done. But the people that are focused going forward, they never look back until the day that they sit down and they're done of what they're doing. And I never tend to look back. People go, A, B, what's next? What you're doing? Or do you ever think about all this stuff you do? No, I don't

think about what I've done. I'm thinking about where I'm going and where I'm heading. Absolutely. That's crazy. So how did you, what was the decision point and how did you get involved in professional racing within the NHRA? You started in pro stock bikes. Believe it or not, the story, I got involved with a football player named Troy Vincent. Troy Vincent was a defensive back that came from the, you know, the Miami Dolphins, and he played the extent of his career for the Philadelphia Eagles.

And I'd say he ended up marrying my cousin. So it was all in the family. You know what I mean? But the good part was Troy was a motorcycle enthusiast. He loved speed. He loved fast vehicles. And he wanted to start this pro-stock motorcycle team. And my cousin said, I got a cousin that race motorcycles, dirt bikes.

And I think he'll be really good for this. And that's when I started. I started drag racing Troy's street bikes. And it went from the street bikes of getting a full-blown pro-stock motorcycle team. And I got to study under the last. late, great six-time world champion Dave Schultz. And Dave Schultz was my mentor. And before I started racing, I remember I spent a whole year with Dave building our pro-sac motorcycle from scratch, from a chassis, all the way up to a rolling motorcycle with an engine into it from scratch.

And when I learned through that process was, which was very, I was very fortunate to do, I went to a school that was not offered. You know, while I learned all the milk and cranes on what it takes to build a motorcycle from scratch. And all the details and all the technology that you put into it that makes it unique and makes it special. And when it takes to win championships, that's why he was a six-time world champion. He just didn't ride and race the bike. He engineered it from the ground up.

And by me learning that, it gave me a different perspective on how to ride the bike because I understood how it was built. And when it takes to put it together, and then I start nitpicking my riding style on the same effort on how to ride the bike. doing that also. And it took me from being just a rider to being of like I'm having a whole full pie of how to put it all together and making a package deal from riding to tuning to actually working on the motorcycle and engineering the bike and putting together and actually put me a step above my competitors. They were like, where does this kid come from? And that was something that

I could never take back because I've applied that, not just in doing that, but on the business side of racing also. As a pro stock driver and I mean at that point that's your career right

that's what you're doing what is what is a career look like as a pro stock bike rider you know I mean I know what a NASCAR driver career looks like

what does that entail for a pro stock and by the way I don't know what year it was but it was somewhere probably I'm going to say 98 99 time frame I worked for action performance

and so we did a lot of work with John Force and we built a lot of die cast you know for NHRA and also I think I had told you I'm friends with Tommy Johnson and Wendy Johnson and their family and I think it was Wendy Johnson that brought me to drag race I'm it might have been Rockingham and I got to sit on Angel ceilings I know she has a different name now at the time I've got the picture somewhere but I'm going to tell you what I mean I drove stock cars you know late model stock cars yes I sat on that bike and I mean it's you know I mean it's big but it's really big behind you

know with the parachute and everything and you know behind you I mean it's just it was just crazy and I thought to myself how in the world do these guys and girls go down that straight line as fast as they go I mean that is wild to me you're not ever scared no like like when you're it, you don't get scared, you get nervous before you do it. If you're scared, you won't try it. Well, you got a problem, I know. Like, you get what I mean? But did you ever get nervous?

Heck yeah, absolutely. You get nervous, you know what I mean? It's like, it's like getting in the NASCAR going to first tone at Daytona. You see that, you look at it on TV, you don't realize how steep that bank is. Yeah, that bank is stupid steep. We go through the same thing and we see it. And the crazy part of it is you go, all right, I'm nervous, but I'm going to breathe.

And once you start thinking about each individual step that you need to do, you go, all right, I know how to make this happen. Like you go, all right, let's focus on what we do and all the scared and nervousness goes away. But after you get done, after you got hit by the G forces and everything with no seat belts, and that's holding you on, you get there in the track of like, this is crazy. What the heck am I doing? What? What? And you take your paws, but as you get doing it, your mind starts slowing it down and it becomes second nature.

And it's kind of like riding a bicycle after that. You just do it every time. What does life look like as the pro stock driver, you know, day in and day out, kind of training or sponsors or different things like that? I think for me, the training is like anything else where- Do you have full-time sponsors? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I have full-time sponsors. I got doing that in the ProBite. Yeah. In the ProBite. Yeah. In ProSty. I had full-time sponsors also. Absolutely we did. We had very sponsored. I was sponsored by the U.S. Army. So I had one the biggest sponsors of them all. So I got to do basic train, do all that stuff and talk to soldiers and do everything of that

nature. So for me, that was a lowering process. That's what gave me my foundation in most sports on public speaking. Because we had to go speak at Army bases. We had to get in front of generals in front of crowds of 3,000 people and actually be able to talk and hold them and actually motivate them to go out and do things in their life that they wanted to do. So that was a big undertaking when at the U.S. Army, but it catapult me for me to be at in a career where I'm at right now for sure. So you collected a lot of victories in the pro stock bike, 11th in the leaderboard there for a pro stock bike.

And then after what I think nine years or so, as a pro stock bike rider, you switched to top fuel dragsters and sitting here talking to a four-time champion. So tell me about that. What made that switch? Was that something you wanted to do? Did an opportunity come about? And what's the difference there for my listeners? Well, for me, I always want, like, don't get me wrong. I was like, I always wanted to go top fuel racing.

Like top fuel, funny car racing, that's like the top level of our sport. You know what I mean? It's the top level of our sport. Top fuel, funny car. So it was like a dream of going, if I could ever be somewhere, this is where I will want to be. And never knew what was going to happen. Never knew I can make it happen. You know what I mean?

But I just put it out there. And that's a lesson I tell everybody, if you want to do something, be the squeaky wheel that needs to grease. If you act like nothing's wrong, nobody's going to bother you. Nobody's going to talk to you. Nobody's going to never know. So I put it out there to saying, hey, this is what I want to do. And finally, it took me seven years of my pro-slaid bike career for me to get a shot just to test a top fuel car. And David Powers gave me that test.

You know what I mean? So that's where it came up for me is getting that opportunity with David Powers and when I got it, I didn't actually make sure that I was willing to be able to do that. I had to be willing that I was going to be able to take that chance to do it. And I put all my chips in that one basket. And once I got that chance, I never looked back. Tell me about so, I mean, you've been doing that since 2008, four championships. And just recently, two years ago, you started your own team.

Tell me about that journey and that decision to do that. That was a really, really tough decision because I was on a race team that was winning championships. You know what I mean? So I was at DSR. And I came to their forefront and I told Don, I said, Don, I said, Don. I want to make a change and I want to start my own team. And the reason being is I knew down the road that DSR wasn't going to be there forever. Like Donald's getting older.

And, you know, he just passed away a year or so ago. So I was like, I need to do something different. And I want to be able to do my own team and cultivate because I want to carry the torch and give other people the opportunity one day down the road where I can't drive the race car no more. So when that opportunity came up, I was just like, all right. I'm like, I told them, and it took me two years in the process, and I had two years to plan. And then we made the public announcement. And then I put my head down.

You talk about getting uncomfortable? I was really, really uncomfortable. And I was like, did I do the right choice? Did I the right decision? Like all I had to do was bring my helmet and my gear and show up and drive before, you know what I mean? Now you have all this responsibility. and if it doesn't work out, it's all on me. And unfortunately, I put myself around the right people.

I bought all the right people with me. And without them, AB Motorsports wouldn't be what it is. Like everybody that's back at the office, they're all part of it. And I always told them, I said, this is not my race team. This is our race team. So if we all put it all in together, we can all grow together and we can make something really, really special happen. And three years of owning the team to win a championship,

We always won a championship the first year we race. We finished second. And to bounce back after that and to win a championship the third year because we put it all in racing. Trust me, at the end of the year, Kelly, ain't nothing left over. I hear you. I run a similar organization here. So to do that, you know, I mean, that's a huge gamble.

I don't know what NHRA looks like in terms of owner-driver situations. I know in NASCAR, that was always a tough feat, right, to be the driver and to be the team owner and to carry your own load. For us at Junior Motorsports, when we got started in 2006, we had a year and a half before we thought we were going to go bush racing at the time, nationwide racing at the time. But a sponsor came to our door like three months before the season was going to start and said, hey, we want to be racing next season. What can you guys do? And so we really had to pivot and, you know, change our course a little bit there. What was kind of that first building block for you for your team? Like what was in place first?

Do you have to have the financial part? Did you gamble on that? Well, for me, I was very fortunate because all my partners were with me. Everyone set for Maco. So Maco was still signed to DSR. And that was me being a driver. So when I came up with that and I made a decision. to branch off because I was kind of

odd duckling at DSR anyway. Everybody was Mopar. Everybody else was Mopar with gear wrench tools. I was Maco Tools and I was Maco Tools and Toyota. Like I was like... On the same team. On the same team. I was the stepchild

anyway. And like you had Napa auto parts and had other auto part vendors like FVP that wanted to be a part of me. They were all Shell. I was always part of Lucas family even though we won Shell. So I went off on my own, I was able to re-establish all my partners I had through my career before I was at DSR. So that was a blessing.

And I was able to branch out and outreach and do more things. And it was one of those deals where it wasn't being held back. It was just a conflict of interest amongst the parties. You know what I mean? So amongst the partners. So when I was able to branch out, I was able to branch out and get everything going. So that was really, really, really special for me. And that was the heart, that was the heartaches.

That was the reality. And then when I got out on my own, the hardest part was putting everything together, the financial stuff together. Like, I mean, the sponsorship was there. But if anybody's ever gotten in motor sports, there's not banks lined up waiting in a line to give you loans to buy all your equipment and all your parts and pieces. And they don't know how to do that. So you have to figure out how to make that happen. Luckily, I had some money away, I had some money here, I did this here, I did that there, and then you're going to have a big line of credit to make it happen.

And there was some restless nights to put all the paperwork and did all the diligence to make that happen. But once we got that all together, I was full board. And once we got, and I had a lot of close personal friends and people that were supporters that stood behind me that was financially sound. That really helped out a lot too. So without them it definitely wouldn't be possible. Now in NASCAR, it's really hard to be a one car operation. Is that a similarity in NHRA?

You know, you don't have as much, you know, the technical part of it, the engineering part of it, the people part of it, to go along with being just a one car operation. You're kind of, you know, an oddball there. What is that like in NHR? I don't know if it works like that or not, to be multi-car or one car. The one-car deal, this is the truth of the matter. A two-car team could have a big advantage if the two teams are aligned where they're doing the same things.

It could be a big disadvantage if you have two true chiefs that class with each other that don't want to work with each other or learn from each other because they're in competition with their self. You got what I mean? There's some similarities there. You get what I mean? So a lot of people goes, oh, they got four cars. They're going to be great. Well, that's if all the teams are aligned.

If not, it could cause chaos. As much as the advantage, it could be just as much as the disadvantage. And we saw that at DSM at times too, because you got remember, while I was there, there were four dragsters and three funny cars. I mean, three dragsters with four funny cars. So you align yourself with a couple teams. You all work out and learn stuff, but then you were against the other teams. It was like sibling rival wars inside the shop.

Right? But for me, being the single car team where it's been a disadvantage is that you don't get to see the track time if you had a second car. You can say this car could test this and do this. And this year has actually been a good alliance with Sean Reed, where we brought him in our for development. He's running our combination where we've been learning some stuff. Well, they learned a lot of stuff from us where they got their startup,

where they didn't have to go through two years of learning an engine company. and stuff like that where they jumped the board and got all that stuff from us. But then it's been also a benefit where we know what they're doing and we're like, all right, well, we did this, you did that. Well, we could do this. Well, you need to do that. And that's been a great help because our teams have been aligned. Got it.

You know what I mean? So that has been an advantage. But if we can get another car there that's really aligned with us where they're running their car, the same chassis. And every part to the T as us, it could be a huge advantage if we're running it among amongst ourselves, for sure. What's the biggest challenge in this three years that you face to have your own team and do this?

I think the biggest challenge, honestly, is that I always thought myself as being a good people person. You know what I mean? But at the same token is that we have had turnover in our teams over the first two years of getting the right personnel together. That's the biggest challenge, is keeping people happy. keeping people happy and what I mean by happy

I ain't talking about what they make or what they get paid because we take care of all of our employees on that side of it but to get the employees to coexist

and be happy together you got to remember you got crew guys and girls that live on the road and we got 12 of them that live on a road and some of them

stay in the same hotel room with them every day for over 180 days out of a year okay so to get that dynamic to work together

and to have everybody on the same page, which I've learned over time, is communication. The more communication, the better communication is, the better people have an understanding. So for me, I think that's been the biggest, biggest hurdle. Like me, with sponsors and delivering, we over-deliver for all of our partners and to collaborate and do the B2B operation stuff together,

that's my wheelhouse every day. But I thought that I was really good at something because I understand that you have to manage every person differently because everybody has a different personality. Some people need a hit against the head. Some people you got to be more gentle with and you've got to motivate them differently. You've got to be a cheerleading coach and pick them up.

And in other people, you can just be straightforward. Like, hey, man, what the heck you doing? And they can take that well and say after it doesn't hurt their feelings. So learning that whole dynamic and how to be in a leader is not dictating to people. Being a leader is how you get people to be the best version of themselves. And when you understand how to do that,

you will form a corporation or a team that becomes unstoppable. Have you seen a situation where I'm just curious from the driver and being the owner like in my position with my brother being his manager, but I'm also his sister, which is a whole different dynamic.

In your role, being the owner, and the driver, do you have to flip hats? Is it hard in that role? Because I can imagine as a driver, you could piss somebody off pretty easily on the team for maybe a way you feel, and that's not your owner hat, you know? No.

No, I could make a man to race track. I go back to the shop and go, step into my office. I'm just joking, but what I, the trick of everything is I had to learn that for myself. And what I had to learn was when I went to the racetrack, I had to shut the owner side of me off and the business side off

and become a driver because what was happening was the owner deal that everyone wants to turn off. And it was affecting the way I was driving too. It affected hard the way I was driving because I'm thinking about this, thinking about this, and I get in the car, I had to try to turn off and focus on driving. So what I started doing was for me to get back to the level the championship caliber driver that my team needed and deserved,

I had to figure out once I leave the shop Thursday morning to fly to the race. As soon as I left out that shop door, the ownership turned off. My emails turned off, unless it was an emergency for my personal assistant Christine at the office. And I had to relax and take a breath, smell the roses, blow out the candles, like to come on. and that's what I used to get my mind free and clear. And I had to learn that. It took me a better, almost the first year of team ownership to learn how to do that because I suffered on a racetrack like that.

And I pulled it together to run for a championship the first year. And after that, I got more comfortable with it. Like, I got comfortable with being uncomfortable, and that's when I started prospering and leveling up. That makes so much sense. and you know it's hard to do both it's really hard to do both so i can uh that that makes just a ton of sense what are some things um what what are some of the from a financial standpoint what are some of the big buckets for an nhr a team when you're looking you know at the p and l and you're

going oh gosh what what can i figure out here on the naskar side you know it's a lot of different things but i mean you mentioned travel um you know tires because we go through through lots of tires during several 100 mile race. And obviously payroll, that's a big one. What about for you guys? No, the biggest thing from us, the way we're able to sustain ourselves, for one is the number one thing for us is NASCAR, they don't blow up engines like we do.

We can blow up. When we blow up an engine, that's 100 grand gone. So if we can minimize our maintenance and do our maintenance, and do our parts and pieces right and be efficient at what we do we can save tenfold on maintenance every time you blow one of those up you're talking about 50 to 100 grand every time so and how how often could you do that like what does that look like like when we normally strategizes we we we kind of put in the budget six strategic events a year but it's very easy to have 10 of them it's very easy to have 12

of them we go to 20 events it's very easy to have one event if you if you don't do things right. So, so for us is being strategic on that and being efficient on that. See, some people go, oh, we can go longer on this. Oh, we can go longer on that. We can go, no, no, no, no, no, no, we can't. That blower belt doesn't owe us a dime. I tell one of our blower guys, we got blower belts that go like 15 runs. Before we said, blur belts, you change every one or two runs. I said, no, once we get to six or eight, it doesn't owe us no more. Just take it off. Like, like, that's what you got to be smart about. And also, on travel is really, travel is a big, key to it is saying okay can we just can we just literally like go in a day later can

we strategically do this we can say a day of a hotel rooms you times that by 20 times eight rooms that at $600 and you times that by 20 you know you start talking about thirty-some thousand dollars a year you know what I mean you start you start saving up big time you find me and oh yeah and you start doing that and then looking flights ahead of time and then the cost of the travel on the road and it's being smart and diligent about it and being efficient about it. That's what makes a difference for us. It's just being smart and we save from every aspect from part nutrition and everything else. Now does the sanctioning body and the teams, you know,

that's a struggle that I feel like NASCAR has went through and we're getting much better at that communication, which you brought up earlier. Does, do the teams and the sanctioning bodies have a good relationship when you're talking about those kinds of things like going in a day early or, you know, what's the schedule going to look like? That's a big topic, you know, for us is one day shows, two day shows, how does it look, you know, all these different things, the rules and how they're set and all. Do you, do you all have the relationship where you get to have those conversations and you sort of have a seat at the table, how to drive things? Yeah, like, so what we do, our sport has gotten very savvy, you know what I mean? and on the rules.

And what they've done over the time, we actually get that we have a pro board that we sit and talk to N.HRA and we try to make the best, we try to make the best decisions for the classes hall to keep the cost down is what they try to do. So we haven't changed parts and pieces.

We can't be as innovative as we used to. And you're seeing that on the NASCAR side also too. Yeah, absolutely. So you got to do more with management and stuff like that. You know, so for us, it's been really good to work with entry on that and then to move forward and we're keeping, we're keeping the cost down. And for me, I always talked about what's good for everybody. For one, the number one thing is safety is what I care most about.

And performance side is we can make it better by making a car better. We're making the small chestnut, like chassis stuff, little arrow stuff here and there. But we can't change the majority of the big parts and pieces. you know what I mean? You mentioned earlier guys and gals what does you know obviously NASCAR has been a very male-dominated

sport I think with society and generation generational changes we see a big difference in that now we see female engineers we see female tire specialist you've got female ownership and things like that in leadership

how does that look on the drag racing side well on the drag racing side well on the drag race is out. Our sport has been diverse for a long, long time. So we have, we have, we actually got gals that are clutch girls. That's the best clutch girls out there. And we've got, we actually have on board support like from Toyota. We have all the engineers at the track, doing track and sampling data. You know what I mean? And the coolest part about them is, is that they're able to go out there and they give us, like just all, everything they give us is so valuable. It's

ridiculous because I hate to, I'm going into it. I've got to be careful what I say because this is you know what I mean? So, but the, but the cool part is. So you have female like working on the cars and that kind of that part of it. Yes, we have females that work on the cars. They do the clutch, the cylinder heads. They do a lot of stuff on our teams and they work hard and they bust their tail at it. But for us, what makes the whole deal so special for us right now is that, In our sport, we got female drivers. They're doing everything. And they're actually, they're kicking our tail.

It gets me upset a little bit sometimes. Who's kicking your tail and top fuel? Well, Brittany Forrest did it for quite some times. But I've got her a lot lately. I got her a lot lately. Because now before I race, all I do is I give her a little wink, Kelly. Oh. You like trying to psych her out.

Play some mind games. I'm messing with her. She just got married. I know her husband. I did see that. newlywed and they're really, really good people and they're a special couple and they look really good together. But I tease her all the time.

But what makes it so unique of what we do on a racetrack on a performance standpoint is that our sport has evolved in so many ways where now we're just polishing things and we're breaking barriers and going so much faster. You get what I mean? Yeah. Where I couldn't believe it before. Like we're going just as fast at a thousand feet. We're going faster than a thousand feet that we did in a standing quarter mile from before.

We're going almost three We're going 340 miles an hour And 1,000 feet Where when I left quarter mile racing We were just breaking 330 So if 320 feet less We're going faster Than we did in 1,320 feet

So that tells you how much we evolved And how much that we're pushing the envelope And that we've been pushing the limits And we're getting 12,000 horsepower Off our engines when I first start racing top fuel We're right at 10,000 horsepower A lot of significant changes there Yes

So let's switch gears and talk about NHRA in general. You know, popularity of the sport, you know, appeal. Your fan base, like your fan base, tell me about your fan base. And if you can compare it to another fan base, do that. But tell me about your fan base and what's so attractive and appealing as an HRA and to be involved there. Our fan base is wide open I mean it's got every demographic you can go to

I grew up as a kid as drag race and drag racing has always been so diverse because it's so accessible and you go in any area of the country and it's a drag race track whether it's 8th mile or quarter mile and you got the guys over there with the rotary engines

because the drag race you can run what you brung rotary engines I remember seeing people with mini bikes motorcycles if people go over there got their old school hot ride cars like Camaros Transams Mustangs or Dodge cars

or you could go or you can even go over to uh or you can even go over there and see people that have their full-blown nitrous and like nitro cards alcohol blown cars turbo cars turbo cars total motorcycles you know what i mean and uh it's what i think that's what makes drag racing so special because i grew up around as a kid you see every walk's life out there racing you can have a junkyard car out there racing it and having a blast and you can bracket race it so for me I think that's what makes the drag racing fan Like everywhere we go, every NASCAR fan is a drag racing fan Every drag racing fan

Like our sport is so intertwined Like you see like Rick Hendrick Drag racer You got to me Joe Gibbs Came from drag racing before he went to NASCAR racing Like you see them all, you know what I mean? And Richard Petty Drag Race

And it went back to NASCAR racing So it's like we're all in that same realm together And that's what makes our sport so special when you look at it and you go there is that we're just taking it from the street to the strip in a closed environment and we're having fun doing it and we go to the fan appeal it's crazy when I get on the airplay now people goes maybe I just saw you race last week you know what I mean that's awesome you know what I mean I'm like yeah these joker watch drag racing check this out and I mean it's drag racing it's kind of be one of those sports have been the best kept secret

and now you're starting to see is it's a household name and uh And I just laugh at all the time. People come up to me, type of me backer, are you Aunt Tron Brown? I said, how do you know? They go, I heard your voice. I said, yeah, the 16-cold. Yeah, your voice is definitely stands out. What do you think has changed that, you know, to be a household name?

I mean, you know, like I said, working at action, I can remember the Warren Johnson and pro stock and just different names. Obviously, the force is, you know, John Force is the name that, you know, is synonymous. But, you know, what do you think has brought that to light to be more of a household name? The NAC was really made our sport grow leaps and bounds is the TV package, to be honest with you. Being on Fox and being on the Fox Network where you could turn on normal TV and being, being, like, you know, leading in or coming off of a NASCAR event and going into NASCAR racing. And the same thing with NFL football games, like our viewership doesn't stop. They're like, oh, what's this?

bam, and then you see it, and then also partnering it up with Mission Foods. Mission Foods has been huge. Mr. Gonzalez has taken us to a whole other level, because now you go into every grocery store across the country where we're racing at, and you see cutouts of all the NHRA stars in the Mission Food aisles up the front of deal, and you get off when you buy Mission Food. So it's been a great partnership because we bought awareness to Mission Foods and what they're all about. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah.

Are you seeing that trickle down to the teams and the sponsorship lenscape for you guys? Absolutely. And absolutely. And seeing Tony Stewart come and racing our sport full time also. I was going to ask you about him. You know what I mean? You need to talk to your brother and tell him, I got him a seat. Let's go, baby.

Let's go. Oh, gosh. I don't know about that. You know, he doesn't race the Super Speedways for a reason. I don't know if he's going to think about going straight or not. Hey, well, Kelly, you could do it. Kelly, we put you in there short and sweet. Short and sweet.

Well, I'll have a funny story about that. So when I worked for Action and Fred Wagonaw's was 27 and, you know, again, had raced some stock cars and whatnot. But my problem racing stock cars is that I always wanted to get into the corners too hard and too fast, right? And it's slow and steady in stock cars and then you're faster. And so I go out to Phoenix and I. I think maybe the drag race was there or something.

And Fred's like, hey, Kelly, we got something going on for you. We want you to get into John Forst's car and want you to sit in here. And, you know, I think what we can do is like we can make you, we can try you out in a few drag races. So I get in and the car I got in, the engine was in front of me. So is that, what's, is that all of them? Or is that a funny car? The funny car. Yeah, so I got in the funny car.

So the engines in front of me, which was like, I was like, oh, God, I don't know. This is, like, sitting right there. Like, this is crazy. I felt very claustrophobic in that car. So anyway, they're like, this is you. This, you can do this. And you know, John Forst. I mean, my gosh, he's going to basically just push you right into it, talk you right into it.

But funny little fact, I was expecting my first child. Oh, Lord, have mercy. I had an excuse. I was like, I can't do this. This isn't going to work out for me. but yeah i wanted to ask you about um you know the the pool of drivers for drag racing um and just kind of what that looks like you know in naskar we're seeing you just mentioned junior dragsters you know you can get started at five years old in naskar we're seeing

you know the drivers that are coming through are younger and younger um and you know instead of being 30 when you run your first cup race, you know, you might be 20, you know, you might be 21. Yes. What is that looking like? You know, what's the pool of drivers in your sport and what's that looking like? And how do you get involved to come up through? Well, for us, we have the junior drags race now.

We have a whole serious drag racing. Start out five years old if you want to and go all the way up. And then when kids turn 14, they got, they actually got another class, which is a street class. you can actually drive a normal race car, like a car, and you can't go faster in 12 seconds down the racetrack, but your parents got to sit in the passenger seat while you drive it when you're underage.

Oh, wow. Then once you get your license, any driver's license, you're full bored where you could drive, raise any class as long as you earn a license and do all the necessary steps to get it. And it's growing up, like my son, he just came out at junior drags ranks like a few years back.

And now he's literally in, He's literally in racing Supercop in his sportsman ranks, and he's tearing it up. He's out there doing what he does and having a blast and having a great time. And he won some pretty big money bracket races, and we're just working him up where he wants to come, and he wants to do it professionally one time. And I told him to say, it's a drive for you, doesn't he? Yeah, it's all out there in front of him. I just told him all he's got to do is do to work.

He's got to put the work in because it's not going to be handed to him. He's got to get out there and do the work, do the social media. stuff that you need to do to give the sponsors back. And then also do all the legwork and go to the conventions, do the order graphs, and build himself. We've got to build his own self up to make it happen where the sponsors invest in him. So he can represent them and do the right things. What do you think that he is when you tell someone to build themselves up?

Because that's a question I get. You know, how do I find sponsorship? How do I make myself marketable? How are you having your son do that? main thing is he saw how I've done it throughout my whole career and basically what you got to do is

you got to find a partner, a company, find out what direction they're going and how to implement yourself and make you part of the vehicle that's going to get them there. That's the best way

I explain to people and they go well how do you do that? They'd be, I said, well, first you've got to present yourself build a relationship with them because if you don't have a relationship

they're not going to say, oh, this is where I want to be. People want to be a part of somebody that they know And once you're out in a sport that you're doing, people know you very well because they're watching you on TV. But you've got to build that relationship beforehand to get you started. So while my son in the lower ranks, he's got a great partner in Streamlight Flashlight. So he's working with them and learning them.

I said, son, you know how you got this deal? Well, Streamlight sells through MacCoo Tools on their tool truck. So it's a part of what I do of my main sponsor. So you build up with them become a spokesperson, speak on their product. And social media is a powerful, powerful tool now. like you're just a moving ad for everything that you do. So represent their product each week. Show them the many different ways you can use a Streamlight flashlight

because they got over 50 different products at Streamlight. Get their product, show how to use it and how you use it and how you're going to boost it through you. And you're a teenager. It's great because other teenagers you could use it. When you go out hunting, when you go out fishing, whether you're working on your RV, you're working on your race car, or you're working on your general car.

The mechanics use them all the time and show them all the different uses that you can use. in your car with. So I'm showing him all this stuff and he's taking a start to use it and start implementing it. I said, now you're giving them value. And now you have a direct sell. Now can we tie Streamlight with another different partner like FEP who sells, who sells automotive parts and they have automotive places that they sell to direct. Well, so talk to Dave, talk to Dave with part of FEP, see if you can implement Streetlight over there. Now you're showing them value that you're selling their product. Now once you start doing, once you start checking all those

Now they want to be a part of you, and the more revenue they make, the more the willing to spend on marketing to market to get more market share and to actually get more money, then they can apply that into your racing. And that's how it works. You've got to become a part of them. And it's not just about putting their brand out there is showing them a direct return on their investment that are invested in you. Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned this earning your license piece of NHRA. What does that mean? Well, in HRA, you're able to get your license by actually going to digital through their protocol. You have to race this class and have this many runs. And then you can move to this class. Well, you can go straight to top fuel. If you're going to top fuel, the problem is you've got to do a lot more runs to get your license.

If you go to the classes below it and get your license, you could do the licenses in half the runs to get your license because you proved that you went through all the other tier because you're driving the same car just at a slower speed. Ah. So in HRA, you can get that. there, but the thing about it is you have to have pros sign off on your license. And if a pro doesn't like the way you look, you ain't getting your license. Because a pro ain't going to let somebody, a pro ain't going to let you come into their class and be a dangerment in front of them if you don't sign off on it. So you have the peers that you're going to be racing against has to sign off

on your license to get that license. So, and the track official, and they trade themselves have to sign off on it also too. Interesting. So, and stock cars and circle track racing you know we're racing 40 cars out there you're on the line with another competitor obviously you have lots of competitors in your class i get that and in the bracket system outside of the race car itself and how it's going to perform in terms of horsepower and your tricks and trades of your secrets what does a driver have to do to be different to get there first at the end of the what do you call it at the end of the straightaway at the end of the finish line at the strip at the stride well well for us what makes people different

for one is how you drive the car if you can keep it in a groove if you're all over the place you scrub bt only thing a driver can do is they can't make the car run faster you just can make it run slower smooth yeah yeah yeah you got exactly so and the cars try to do everything but go straight and then also you have to be quick up the starting line our race is won and lost by a thousand of a second you can gain 20,000s or 30,000s, or 40,000, sometimes even 50,000s, which is 500s of a second on somebody in reaction time. That's night and day now. And now, if you don't leave on time, you might as well not even go down a racetrack because the car's gone. You ain't catching it.

You know what I mean? Because all the cars went so close. Is that reaction time something that comes natural, do you think? Or what are things that you can do to make yourself better there? Because it's so important. It's just like anybody you're running. Some people are fast and some people are not that fast. So you can work on yourself to be quicker, make your actions kind of quicker, but it's only as quick as you can go.

But then the other thing that makes a difference is how consistent you are at doing it. That's the big key. You've got to be consistent. You can be quick every once in a while, but how consistent can you be at doing it each and every time? Besides winning races and championships, how do you evaluate success for AB racing, AB motorsports? I think the way I evaluate success for ABM is that are we sitting stagnant or are we growing? Like I look how we're growing. And I'm looking at where we're at where we started at to where we're at now.

And are we doing things easier or is it still hard? And what I evaluate is the growth in each individual on the team. I look at each individual person and say, man, he or she's growing a lot now. And that's why I challenge each and every one to every year is to not just keep on doing the same things because it's working. So how do you get outside your conference zone to do things better and more efficient? And how do we do it better together? And what I do is once I see them get to a certain plateau, I go, all right, I challenge him put

something else on their plate. It's okay. Well, now you're going to do this too. Maybe I'm going to do that. Yes, you are. I've never done that before. I know. I know.

Get out of that comfort zone. Yes. I'll push them every time because. Level up. I've heard a lot of phrases from you. Well, I, this is the funny part is that I never keep myself. I'm always uncomfortable. I'm always pushing myself and I'm always doing more and more things.

I never stop. That's my problem. I never stop and I never will stop. So this is how I do the things that I do. And that's what makes it, that's what makes doing what we do so special is by doing that. You talked about your kids. I know you have three kids. What's their ages? What's your kids' ages? Ariana, Anson and Atler. My daughter's the oldest. She's 23. My son Anson's in the middle. He's 20. The one that races and Adler's our youngest, which is 16. Okay. So did the elders try their hand at racing? Or do they work in your business? They all have raced. They all have raced. And Ariana is getting it back into racing at 23 where she wants to do some more racing. So she's got a car to race too. Atler, he's a fair weather racer. He'll race sometime and he doesn't race. So it's just what it is. It's crazy how all three are different. I've got three kids the same and it's all different. Do they want to work in the business? Absolutely. Absolutely. Like Anson's working. He's going to school for business and entrepreneurship. And Ariana, she went to a dance preparatory school. She's an entertainment business. She likes to dance and sing. So she dance on the carnival cruise ships and some. And she does choreography. And her dream of the aspiration one day is to own her own dance studio. Amazing. That's awesome. Very cool. Very cool. All right. Well, gosh.

We've talked about a lot of stuff. I love it. The last thing I'm going to ask is the best business advice that someone has given you and who was it? It's kind of how I close all the shows. It came from my first team owner, Zoe Vincent, Troy Vincent, the football player. And he was the first one to ever challenge me to look outside of just being a racer, to look at the side of business, because that's how you're going to prosper and grow. and patrol your destiny in your life, plain and simple.

I never forget that he told me he was, A, B, you're going to get a lot of resistance in life, a lot of resistance, and the only way you persevere is by never quitting. He goes, the only way you fail in life is when you quit on yourself. He goes, you're going to stumble, you're going to have people tell you know,

you're going to have things that that doesn't go right, but the only way you, that you never make it is quitting. It's like the finish line, like the finish line is never a finish line only when you stop. Right?

So for me, I came up with the saying the only way you beat resistance is with persistence. And that's one of my favorite sayings. And I learned that from Troy. So I would tell that anybody in business, you never fail in business. You go bankrupt.

You can go upside down all around, but you've got to put it back on all four tires and drop it down the gear and get back on. And then once you figure out how to maneuver and do whatever you need to do at that speed, then you could get to the next gear. And before you know it, you're an overdrive. And that's what I always tell people is that you just got to keep going. And one day when you say, I'm good, and look back and see what you accomplished, you won't believe what you have achieved. And I look back, I look back right now and slow down. And I said, and see where I started at to where I'm at now. If you were to ask me this when I was 20 years old, I told you, what's you smoking?

Like, what are you on? I'm like, really? I'm really going to do that? and and I have and I have I been truly blessed but I'm not stopping here that's what I was going to say so you you're here you are and you said if they asked you 20 years ago where you were going to be what's the next 20 years look like where do you want to go hopefully I've opened up a few more businesses and I have helped people launch their careers and go for their dreams and go for their dreams. and goals and aspiration. And I just hope that I could be that motivational force that they could look at and say, hey, A.B. done it?

I can do it. And that's what I want to be. And my whole deal is, have the AB Accelerate Program on if A.B. Miller Sports. Yeah, tell me about that. We're kind of the wheelhouse of the wealth of information to go to,

whether you're starting to race team, or you need some help on driver development, or you need help in sponsorship, You need help putting different package together. You need help on the social media side. Basically, all the tools I have underneath my umbrella, I offer it to everybody else to come and use. And some things are free, some things you have to pay for,

and sometimes we get on board, and we want to be a part of something to help launch and get it going. And I'll help numerous drivers and numerous teams for years on how to get to where they need to be, and not just to help them get sponsorship, but also maintain it, give them the tools that they need to keep it going. Because the thing about it is a lot of people can get it, but a lot of people know how to keep it and maintain it.

And all my partners, I've had them over 16 years now. Wow, amazing. You said earlier in our conversation, you know, you want to make the best decisions for everybody, the ecosystem of NHRA. That is no better example right there. I mean, to help others, to help potential competitors, you know, and people in the business to see NHRA succeed, to see ABM succeed and be where you want

to grow it. There's no better example of that than that. Well, fantastic. I'm glad this worked out. And you're just as passionate as I thought you would be. So we're stoked about this episode. I'm just telling you. Well, I appreciate you.

I appreciate y'all so much for giving us the time, too. Thank you so, so much. Same for us. Well, get after it. I guess you're going to put that thing in drive and get somewhere. Yes, I am. I got to get down town. I got the PRI show in town.

Oh, that's right. Yeah, we've got some folks coming up there. That's right. That's right. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. It's been so much fun listening to your story. And I hope all the listeners enjoy it. And we'll tune in again for business of motorsports.

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