In only his first year on the IHRA tour, Del Cox Jr. has quickly become a man of two faces.

With every pass Cox looks more and more like the man he replaced last season, but at the same time he continues to separate himself from the pack.

On Sunday, he showed the world both sides.

In only his first year on the IHRA tour, Del Cox Jr. has quickly become a man of two faces.

With every pass Cox looks more and more like the man he replaced last season, but at the same time he continues to separate himself from the pack.

On Sunday, he showed the world both sides.

Cox equaled the mark set by 2008 Top Fuel World Champion Spencer Massey – the man he replaced last year – with his fourth victory of the year, but more importantly his third consecutive victory put him in a league of his own as he takes over the Top Fuel points lead with just two races remaining.

With the win Cox (Downey, Calif.) leaps over Bruce Litton (Indianapolis, Ind.) and now holds a 24 point edge with only six rounds of competition left in the year.

“This is what we came here to do. Some people said a few things about my cocky comments after my last win, but you have to come in here with the mentality to win or else you are going to get beat,” Cox said. “It is nice to lead the points and hopefully we can keep it going and win this championship.”

Cox defeated Tim Boychuk (Edmonton, Alberta) on Sunday with a solid 4.715 second elapsed time at 315.42 miles per hour – his third consecutive pass of 310 miles per hour or more – to Boychuk’s 6.609 E.T. at 129.49 mph to pick up career win number four at the Amalie Oil North American Nationals at New England Dragway in Epping, N.H.

“This really is unbelievable. We knew going into the race against Tim it was going to be tough. They have been running really good lately, but I have the best crew and I have Paul Smith – enough said,” Cox said. “This group has been here plenty of times and they know how to do this.”

Cox also picked up wins over Bobby Lagana Jr. and Smax Smith to reach his fourth final of the year and was clearly on his game with laps consistently in the mid-four second range.

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 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 mile-per-hour 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. 

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