Bernstein pulled to the starting line in the money round to face Antron Brown. When the Christmas tree turned green, Bernstein was on his way to victory, straight and smooth, while Brown struggled with loss of traction at the hit of the throttle. Bernstein got the win light with a 3.844/307.09 to Brown’s 9.009/75.99.

“This gives us a lot of motivation going forward,” said Bernstein. “But I just can’t say enough about the whole team and the positive attitude everyone has kept, especially my dad. We just kept at the grind and we knew eventually we were going to knock down that door and get the win.

“In the first few years of our career it seemed like if we made it to the final round we were a shoe-in for the victory. Lately, we just haven’t been able to get the win light. Finally, today we put all the pieces together in our fifth final round appearance this year.”

Bernstein is now tied with the legendary Shirley Muldowney with 18 career Top Fuel victories.

Antron Brown scored a get-healthy weekend as the 23-time NHRA winner powered his Mike Ashley-owned Matco Tools dragster to a runner-up finish Sunday at Virginia Motorsports Park. Brown remains fourth in the NHRA Countdown to 1 standings.

A day after setting the NHRA national speed record at 319.60 mph, after qualifying fifth at 3.797-seconds, Brown bested No. 12 qualifier Chris "the Greek" Karamesines, six-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher, and 31-time winner Doug Kalitta before smoking the tires in the final round against Bernstein. The Matco Tools team now trails Schumacher by 81 points with two races remaining on the 2009 NHRA schedule.

Racing in the semifinals for the first time in the Countdown to 1, Brown advanced to his ninth final round of the season by carding the wire-to-wire win over Kalitta. The Matco Tools flagship driver used a starting line advantage and a lap of 3.846 at 318.47 to hold off Kalitta's pass of 3.886 at 310.70. Brown is now 3-1 against Kalitta this season.

Competing in his 47th career final round, Brown was defeated by the Budweiser car when the Matco Tools/SpongeTech car smoked the tires at the hit of the throttle.