This isn’t the way veteran nitro Funny Car driver Robert Hight would have written the script, but in the end, everything worked out for him in St. Louis.

In the finals of the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals Sunday, Hight clocked a 4.036-second run at 276.29 mph to defeat Tim Wilkerson’s 4.413-second pass at 201.91 mph in the second race of the Countdown to the Championship.

Moments after Hight took the win light, things got scary as his Chevy Camaro suffered an engine explosion that blew the body off the car and then the car hit the retaining wall.

Fortunately, Hight was able to walk away from the crash. He was then transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.

“First, we are happy Robert is Ok,” said John Force in a press release. “He went to a local hospital to be checked out and after being x-rayed and evaluated he was scheduled to be released (Sunday night). I’m glad Robert has the points lead and now we are going to rest and get ready for Dallas.”

There are four races left in the 2018 NHRA season at Dallas, Texas (Oct. 4-7), Carolina Nationals (Oct. 12-14) in Charlotte, Las Vegas (Oct. 25-28) and Pomona, Calif. (Nov. 8-11).

Thanks to winning in St. Louis, Hight, the reigning nitro Funny Car world champion, took over the season points lead. He has a 30-point lead over second-place J.R. Todd.

Hight, who also won the 2009 nitro Funny Car world championship, now has 44 career national event wins, and three this season. It also was Hight’s 10th career Countdown race win and 90th Countdown round win, both are tops in the nitro Funny Car category.

Hight’s victory parade Sunday consisted of wins over Dale Creasy Jr., John Force, Tommy Johnson Jr. and then Wilkerson. Hight won the event from the No. 1 qualifying position with his 3.844-second run at 326.16 mph. He also collected nine bonus points throughout the weekend as he was the quickest in Q1, Q3, and Q4.

Hight left first by a small margin in the finals and then Wilkerson began to haze the tires. Hight blew up in the other lane just past the finish line, but managed to still get the win.
 
“The track today was a little dicey for me, and I lost control of what I was doing out there, but I really felt like I had it reeled back in for the final,” said Wilkerson in a press release. “Looking at it, it was dead-on what I wanted it to do, but it just came loose out there in the middle. I'm real glad Robert was okay after that. Hopefully, we'll keep going rounds when we get to Dallas. That was the plan coming into this Countdown deal, and we're sticking to it."

Courtney Force, Wilkerson and Ron Capps are in the No. 3 through No. 5 spots in the points standings.

Hight is trying to become just the fifth nitro Funny Car driver to win back-to-back world championships and the first to do so in the Countdown Era. The last to accomplish the feat was John Force whose streak of 10 straight titles ended in 2002. The other back-to-back champions are Don Prudhomme (1975-1978), Raymond Beadle (1979-1981) and Kenny Bernstein (1985-1988).