Drag racing and CrossFit might not sound like a match — but for Antron Brown, four-time NHRA drag racing champion, the two complement each other perfectly.
Brown, 48, recently added CrossFit movement patterns to his training for drag racing and has seen incredible results in both his mental and physical game.
- “[CrossFit] makes you endure it, where you start getting used to it, and when you start getting used to it, you start climbing and doing things that you never thought you could do again,” Brown told Morning Chalk Up in an interview.
Among his many accomplishments, Brown became the first African American driver in history to win an NHRA championship series back in 2012. He followed that up with additional series titles in 2015, 2016, and 2024.
He won six races in the 2024 season for AB Motorsports in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series.
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Brown told us that spectators might not realize the amount of fitness and core stability necessary for drag racing since races are typically held on a short, straight track and last only a few seconds.
- “Fitness for us that plays a big dividend is our core. Our core is a big part of it, and also, like our fast twitch muscles, and not so much with the hands, but with your feet,” Brown said.
Brown was recently introduced to CrossFit movements by his trainer and is now incorporating Tabata-style training into his workouts.
He adds that doing CrossFit has brought him back to college when he played basketball and ran track and field.
- “I was an athlete in college, so I’m very familiar with the work ethic of doing different things,” Brown said. “But now, with CrossFit, we started mixing so many different disciplines, from regular strength training to interval training, and also mixing in dynamic stretching.”
Not only has Brown seen physical changes, but he has also learned to endure and become mentally tougher, thanks to the sport.
Brown has started to include plyometric movements like box jumps, burpees, and jumping lunges to his routine. The biggest shift for him was the quick, intense time domains and repeated movements during his training that he hadn’t done before.
- “I think that when you come there with that mindset of feeling good, and you feel physically fit, and you are physically fit, it gives you that mental and emotional confidence that you need to succeed and to get the job done,” Brown said.
What people might not realize about drag racing is the short and fast time domain means there is zero room for mistakes or wandering thoughts.
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Brown adds that due to the way race events are scheduled, drivers have to stay mentally sharp and ready to race throughout long days of sponsorship obligations and fan meet-ups before and after a race.
- “We have to be on-point where there’s no do-overs, no mulligans, so your mind has to be crisp,” Brown said. “You’ve got to be able to bring 100% after you’ve just been running around, working, and doing micro marathons of different projects and different things that you have to do.”
Brown has started to do group classes, and as a highly competitive person, he’s been pushing himself to do different movements and see how far he can go.
- “CrossFit has helped me get mentally and emotionally stronger, because that’s what we’re doing when we’re training too. It’s not just training your body, it’s training your mind,” he added.
Brown is located in Indianapolis, IN, and has been racing since 1998. He does fitness to train for racing and to stay young. CrossFit, he adds, has given him a new challenge and changed his life.
- “We win by 1000s of a second, not by big margins. I’m talking about close margins. If you sneeze or you breathe or you mess up an inkling it’s over,” Brown said.
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