Every ticket is a pit pass: NHRA Four-Wide Nationals return to Concord this weekend

Imagine if every ticket to a football or basketball game gave fans locker room access.

In its own way, the experience of attending a drag race provides that.

The National Hot Rod Association’s Four-Wide Nationals comes to town from Friday to Sunday at zMAX Dragway in Concord. As Charlotte Motor Speedway advertises, every ticket is a pit pass.

“You can see yourself being there,” Antron Brown, a three-time world champion, said recently. “A lot of people would love to go into the Charlotte Hornets’ locker room and see what the coach is telling the athletes.

“You see that. You see the oil drop down the crew guy’s face, and he might drop a couple words that shouldn’t be said in public.”

Brown, a 48-year-old star NHRA driver and team owner, first attended a race when he was 10. He remembers asking his father — Albert, a competitive drag racer himself — who the people in semi-trucks were.

A young Antron Brown was perplexed by the fact that these “professionals,” as Albert described them, were lucky enough to be at the race track using sophisticated equipment — and getting paid. He saw opportunity to forge a career in the sport.

“Our sport actually shows the work it takes to be great,” Brown said. “And when you see my younger version — when I would go back to being 10 years old, when I showed up at the race track — that vision showed me how to get to where I want to be.”

Brown, the first Black driver to win a major U.S. auto racing championship, grew up in New Jersey and was a three-sport athlete — football, basketball and track and field — in high school.

He’d raced his whole life, as his father did, and his legs have speed too. Brown went on to become a standout sprinter and jumper at Mercer County Community College, after which he received an invitation to the 1998 U.S. Olympic Trials for his 100-meter time.

Brown’s eyes have been on a career in drag racing’s highest level since soaking in the all-access experience of NHRA races when he was growing up.

Former NFL cornerback Troy Vincent, who had started a pro stock motorcycles team, encouraged him to join his racing team. That phone call came after the invitation to the Olympic Trials, and as Brown had a full scholarship to compete in track and field at Long Island University — but racing in a form of motorsports was truly Brown’s dream.

Brown has won three Top Fuel World Championships in 2012, 2015 and 2016, and has amassed 74 career wins in the NHRA. He’s a six-time winner at zMAX Dragway, which ties the record for most in NHRA history.

Want to go this weekend?

The 15th running of the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals kicks off with “Friday Night of Fire,” where fans will see 10-foot header flames illuminate the night sky, and conclude with a “Sunday Fun Day” that begins with a track walk alongside top drivers and racing personalities at 10 a.m.

Tickets for the entire weekend are available on TicketMaster, as are tickets for the individual events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.