Alex Laughlin is doing double-duty racing at the SpringNationals in Houston this weekend, and he couldn’t be more excited.

Laughlin will make his season debut in the Pro Stock class and he also will continue to drive Anthony Dicero’s A/Fuel Dragster. Both entries will have the primary sponsor of Gas Monkey Energy Drink. Laughlin also is receiving additional sponsorship support from Advance Auto Parts and Havoline.

“It’s awesome to get back in a Pro Stock car,” said Laughlin, who is running the full season in A/Fuel Dragster. “I have not been in a Pro Stock car since I did some testing in January (in Bradenton. Fla.).”

When Laughlin makes his Pro Stock return at Houston, it will be with horsepower provided by Elite Performance and he will be a teammate with Erica Enders, Jeg Coughlin Jr., and Vincent Nobile.

A year ago, Laughlin competed in all 24 NHRA Pro Stock national event races, highlighted by his inaugural Pro Stock race victory at St. Louis, Sept. 25. He powered his Gas Monkey Garage Chevy Camaro to a final round win over Bo Butner. Laughlin also captured one No.1 qualifying spot at the Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Denver in July.

Laughlin just missed finishing in the top 10 in the points standings to make it into the Countdown to the Championship, coming in 11th place.

Laughlin had a 17-23 round record in 2016 and he also had a runner-up finish at Dallas, losing to Drew Skillman in the finals.

The Texas native made his NHRA Pro Stock debut in Sonoma, Calif., in 2015 and ran a total of seven races.

“I made the switch from Gray (Motorsports engines) to Elite this season,” Laughlin said. “We went and tested two weeks ago (in Noble, Okla.), and it went really well. Houston wasn’t even on our list of (Pro Stock) races to run this year, but testing went so well we decided to come down and run this race. We have the same car we ran last year, it just has an Elite motor now. A lot of times if you go more than two weeks without driving (a Pro Stock car) the first couple runs are throw away runs because it’s kind of hard to get back into it, but the testing went so well, it was like I’ve never got out of the car.”

At Noble, Laughlin made 10 runs in two days.

“That’s the most (testing) runs that we’ve ever been able to make anywhere,” he said.

Laughlin said he will run six NHRA national events in Pro Stock for sure after Houston, and that number may grow.

“We will probably pick up a few more (races) along through the year,” Laughlin said. “If things really start going well for us, ultimately we would like to race the rest of the season (in Pro Stock). After Houston, I’m going to run in Pro Stock and (A/Fuel Dragster) in Charlotte (April 28-30).”