Brown claimed his second straight Top Fuel world championship in 2016, displaying another dominant performance in the Countdown to the Championship. Designed to create a dramatic finish between 10 possible drivers, the six-race playoff has instead become a showcase for Brown, who simply gets hungrier with each taste of victory.

“ Our main focus is to come out and be able to compete for a championship and that’ s our goal each and every year,” Brown said.“ Our goal is not changing, and we’ re driven even more because once you have a taste of it, it’ s like somebody gave you this juicy steak dinner that you ain’ t never had before. They gave you a bite of it and we’ ve had three bites of it. There’ s still a lot of bites left on that steak and now they’ re pulling that plate away, and that’ s what

they do every year at the end of the year. But we want another bite, so we’ re going to go after it just as hard as we did the last three that we’ ve won.”

It’ s an apt comparison for the fun-loving Brown,

who always seems to have a smile on his face. But behind the wheel, it’ s all business. The Don Schumacher Racing outfit has seven victories in each of the past two seasons, an incredible number considering the standouts in the class.

More impressively, six of those 14 wins have come in the Countdown with Brown sealing the championship before the season finale each year. The team’ s ability to reach another level doesn’ t go unnoticed by Brown, who now has 61 career wins and three Top Fuel titles in five years.

“ It’ s that everything is on the line, and the pressure is at an all-time high,” Brown said.“ We know the stakes are intense and that you can’ t mess up. We take it seriously.”

It also means Brown is not content, which is why he worked just as hard this off-season and why he’ ll continue to push for more in 2017. More championships – and more bites of steak – await.

“ When we’ re out here racing, our mindset is that we love the challenge and the thrill of competition, and that’ s what drives us,” Brown said.“ The competition gets better, it makes us better and that’ s what we thrive off of. We’ re not going to come out next year and say, we’ re the champs from 2016, so it’ s ours. No, we know it’ s going to be rougher for us next year and we’ re looking forward to that challenge, and we’ re about to step that bar up again.”- JOSH HACHAT DI

PHOTOS: NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER