Robert Hight Wins on Las Vegas Strip

Robert Hight further staked his claim as one of the heavyweights in this year’s Funny Car title fight when the Team Chevy driver won the NHRA Nevada Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Hight dominated the penultimate weekend of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season. He qualified his John Force Racing (JFR) Camaro SS in the No. 1 position for the sixth time in 2023, then turned in four consistent runs in the 3.8-second range during Sunday eliminations. In the final round, High laid down a 3.851-second pass at 326.79 mph to take his fourth victory of the season and 65th of his career.

Hight, a three-time Funny Car champion, currently sits third in the point standings but is just 17 markers out of the top spot heading into the finale at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in two weeks. Two of Hight’s four wins this season have come in the year-ending Countdown to the Championship, but it has been a dramatic past few weeks.

“We dug ourselves a hole in Dallas, and we knew we had to come in here in almost a must-win situation,” said Hight, who has won six times at the Las Vegas facility. “These guys are running right with us, and we’re not running away with this thing. This Chevrolet Camaro, man, Chevrolet is going to be very happy with that right there. I thought to myself as I was staging, you look at this beautiful sunset in Las Vegas and you want to drive off into the sunset, and at least we’re carrying a Wally. Pomona is going to be exciting.”

The win represented Chevrolet’s 159th Funny Car victory all-time and its 79th with the Camaro body.

Hight’s Funny Car teammate John Force was defeated in the first round in Las Vegas, while Austin Prock and Brittany Force turned in quarterfinal results in their JFR Chevrolet Top Fuel dragsters.

Meanwhile, in the Pro Stock ranks, Erica Enders came ever closer to her sixth championship as she won her 10th event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to take a 114-point lead heading into Pomona.

After defeating a trio of fellow Chevrolet drivers, Enders put her Elite Motorsports Camaro SS up against Greg Anderson’s from KB Titan Racing in the final round. Enders turned in a run of 6.557 seconds at 208.23 mph as Anderson ran into trouble when he left the starting line. The win was Enders’ second in a row, her fourth this season and her 47th in the Pro Stock category.

"It was a tremendous day, [but] I don't feel like [the championship] is ours,” said Enders, whose win was Chevrolet’s 381st in Pro Stock and the Bowtie’s 262nd in the Camaro. “We have to go out there and continue to earn it. If you would have told me 12 races ago that we were going to contend for our sixth championship, I would have told you that you were nuts. We have a 114-point lead, but a lot can happen. A lot can change, and I just try to focus on what's right in front of me. I don't want to get the bigger picture in my mind too far ahead, but at the same time believe that we can do it and that we're capable."

Chevrolet also wrapped up a championship over the weekend as Aaron Stanfield claimed his third Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown title after making his first qualifying pass on Friday in his COPO Camaro. Stanfield scored two wins this season in the 10-race series pitting factory muscle from the Big Three head-to-head. The 2023 campaign reached its conclusion at the Las Vegas track with David Barton taking the victory in his COPO.

“It's pretty cool to be able to do it here in Las Vegas,” said Stanfield, who has won 11 Factory Stock Showdown events. “I love this racetrack. It's good to be able to do it, we're happy to get it done quick this weekend. All the championships are special and they all have their own story. There's no such thing as a bad championship so I'm very thankful, very blessed. Thank you to all the guys that work on my hot rod.”

When the season comes to a close in Pomona, the team from Chevrolet Motorsports hopes to have a couple more special championships in hand.

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