But while Cox was clearly thrilled following his win, he wasn’t as excited at the start of the day. Two straight days of rain left the Top Fuel bunch without a single pass heading into Sunday. With the field set on points, and no qualifying passes all weekend, all eight teams were left scratching their heads on Sunday.

“It has been a nerve-racking weekend with the weather and not getting any qualifying passes,” Cox said. “And then having Smax first round, I was nervous for it all day because anybody could have won in that first round. We just went conservative and it worked.”

In the semifinals Cox moved on to his third consecutive final round via a win over Bobby Lagana Jr. Cox ran a 4.795 at 313.07 mph, barely edging Lagana’s 4.820 pass.

In the other matchup Boychuk stunned Bruce Litton and allowed Cox to move into the points lead with a near record-setting pass of 4.689 seconds at 322.34 miles per hour. Litton ran into some trouble near the 1,000-foot mark and limped across the line at a still quick 4.952 seconds.

In opening round action Litton and Cox had moved on easily with wins over Dom Lagana and Smax Smith respectively, while Bobby Lagana recorded a win over Terry McMillen and Boychuk defeated Mitch King.

Despite not being on the track for the first time until Sunday afternoon, three of the eight cars surpassed the 300-mph marker on their very first runs and all four looked poised for a run at Sunday’s championship. At the end of the day, however, it was Cox that stood alone.

PRO MODIFIED

Surprise, surprise – Ed Hoover and Kenny Lang met in the final of an IHRA Pro Modified national event. In what has become quite the rivalry, the top two drivers in IHRA Pro Mod points – and perhaps two of the best quarter-mile drag racers in the world – went head-to-head for the sixth time this season and the fourth time in an IHRA national event final round. And this time it was Lang’s turn to lead.

Lang, in his seventh consecutive final, snapped a two-race losing streak to Hoover in picking up his second consecutive victory Sunday.

“It has been good this year. Obviously it has been seven in a row for us and of course having Ed is tough, but getting by him is great,” Lang said. “It puts us in a comfortable position with two races to go.”

And that comfortable position is at the top of the championship standings, 74 points ahead of Hoover.