Pro Stock Motorcycle headliner Andrew Hines said, understandably, that missing last year's NHRA Countdown to the Championship "was a tough pill to swallow for me and everybody here at the shop."

But rather than mope and complain, the Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson team worked, at times, around the clock to make sure he made the cut this time around. The goal was for both Hines and teammate Eddie Krawiec, each with three-time championships to match crew chief Matt Hines, to be eligible for a fourth.

Pro Stock Motorcycle headliner Andrew Hines said, understandably, that missing last year's NHRA Countdown to the Championship "was a tough pill to swallow for me and everybody here at the shop."

But rather than mope and complain, the Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson team worked, at times, around the clock to make sure he made the cut this time around. The goal was for both Hines and teammate Eddie Krawiec, each with three-time championships to match crew chief Matt Hines, to be eligible for a fourth.

This year, as the six-race playoff is set to begin Sept. 12 at Charlotte, Andrew Hines is No. 1 seed, Krawiec No. 2.

The 2013 season started with the Vance & Hines team keeping its fingers crossed that they could be competitive with their completely redesigned engines – ones they were forced to re-engineer to comply with new NHRA mandates aimed at parity that cost the Harley-Davidson contingent much money and time.

"We had put forth so much effort to get to the point where we were able to win a few rounds here and there," Andrew Hines said in an NHRA-generated teleconference. "We had a few parts failures along the way last year that ultimately kept us out of the Countdown."

Ultimately he finished 11th, with only one victory but grateful to get that. It was his worst showing since his rookie season in 2002, when he was 14th in the final standings but raced in only seven events. After his three consecutive championships (2004-06), Hines was either No. 2 or No. 3 for the next six seasons.

"Everybody got a bad taste in their mouth when we only had one V-Rod in the Countdown last year. That's just a product of how good we've done in the last decade, especially just on our Harleys," Hines said. He was alluding to his organization's nine championships in 16 of the past 17 years.
 
 "So we've pushed through it and got back to the point where we could win on Sunday again. And it's been great for us, been great for the Harley-Davidson fans. And we're really, really excited to have a No. 1 bike going into the Countdown," he said.
 
Hines gave full credit to everyone at the Brownsburg, Ind.-headquartered shop, especially those behind the scenes.
 
"The guys here at Vance & Hines have been working on our Harleys nonstop to get us back to this point after the season we had last year," he said. "Everyone in the shop, over the winter, they wanted to make sure we got back to 2012 form, as we call it, when we won 15 out of 16 events. And they put in the hours and the effort that we required of them. Nobody hemmed or hawed, and they all went out and did whatever we asked. They worked the late hours and helped us fabricate new parts. Throughout the entire offseason it was just a whole lot of production stuff rolling through all the mills and machines here at the shop and guys burning midnight oil. You hear that a lot, but there were mills working here around the clock. Luckily, with some of the programmers we have here, they can throw parts in the mill and walk away and come back the next day and it's done.
 
"We racked up a lot of parts in the offseason, and come February we started getting after it and made almost 300 dyno pulls during the offseason to try to get back to the performance we used to have. And it ultimately paid off," Hines said. "We started off the season really strong, brought up the morale of everybody here at the shop when we went out winning rounds, confident we could go qualify at the front of the field.
 
"Everybody here loves what they do for our team," he said. "It's a total team effort. It's not just the five, six guys you see on the road at the racetrack. There's 15 other guys at our shop to make sure we have perfect equipment to go down the racetrack."
 
He's thankful for this chance and amazed by the fact his team was able to give it to him.
 
"Last year I missed the cut completely. I didn't even have a chance to run for the Countdown to the Championship. Quite a turnaround to this year. I've been in this position in the past and came up just short right at the end of the year. So we're obviously in a really good position right now. I hope we can keep the momentum we've had going," Hines said.
 
"I don't think I've ever had this many wins heading into the Countdown," he said.
 
He has four "regular-season" victories (the spring Charlotte race, Englishtown, Norwalk, Denver). And as the Countdown opens, Hines will be seeking his third straight victory at Charlotte in the fall Carolinas Nationals.
 
"It's a nice place to be sitting, with my V-Rod up front. Those 20 little extra points we get for being the No. 1 in points heading into the Countdown can be crucial, given the way all motorcycles are running in the field. All the [qualifying bonus]points can add up.

"Right now my mindset's just to maintain what we've been doing all year long, and that's just going out there, getting round wins on Sunday. The biggest thing is trying to keep your head calm and have faith in your team and motorcycle. Luckily, I've had that all year long," Hines said.

"But right now it's just going to be business as normal, go out there and give it our best shot every single week in, week out. It gets a little tough here with four in a row. You've got to have everything in place to go out there and make a killer run at it," he said. "And we're already in the process of making everything top-notch for the next four coming up."   

NHRA's purpose for establishing the Countdown to the Championship in 2007 was keeping the fans and media engaged until the end of the season. The NASCAR-inspired playoff idea took root after the 2005 season, in which Tony Schumacher ran away with the Top Fuel title, 415 points over closest challenger Larry Dixon. John Force had been the Funny Car champion in 2006 with 636 more points than Tony Pedregon. And Greg Anderson had a whopping 742-point advantage over his Pro Stock teammate Jason Line in 2004.

But this year, each pro class had close points battles. And Hines had the slimmest margin over his closest rival, Vance & Hines teammate Eddie Krawiec, by 17 points. (Doug Kalitta had the Top Fuel edge over Antron Brown by 94 points. Jason Line took the No. 1 Pro Stock seeding by 84 points. And John Force is the Countdown kickoff's Funny Car leader over No. 2 Robert Hight by 80 points.)

Whether it’s by 17 points or 217, Hines simply is happy to be among the 10 eligible riders, who include Hector Arana Sr. and Jr., John Hall, Matt Smith, Michael Ray (whose Countdown status is unsure following his resignation this week from Star Racing), Scotty Pollacheck, Angie Smith and Steve Johnson.

The act of cutting and pasting articles from this publication to a message board is a clear copyright violation as is pulling photos to post on social media sites. All articles and photography published in CompetitionPlus.com are protected by United States of America and International copyright laws unless mentioned otherwise. The content on this website is intended for the private use of the reader and may not be published or reposted in any form without the prior written consent of CompetitionPlus.com.