Last week’s round one loss in the Countdown to the Championship opener in Charlotte did not sit well with Eddie Krawiec.

Not one bit.

Krawiec, the points leader the entirety of the season right up until the regular season finale, began the six-race Countdown with a first-round exit for the first time all year, falling to fourth in the championship standings in the process.

Frustrated, Krawiec entered this weekend’s AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals looking for a turnaround and found just that with a brilliant final round pass to rocket the rider of the Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley Davidson from fourth all the way to the top of the heap for the sixth time in 2016.

“My crew chief Matt Hines had the tuneup right and you know Andrew (Hines) and everybody has been really chipping away at what we’ve got, trying to refine our package,” said Krawiec, who earned his 33rd career No. 1 on Saturday at Gateway Motorsports Park. “We know we have a great motorcycle, it’s up to us to tune it to get it to be great. When you look at the class as a whole, the groupings are like Pro Stock was years ago and it makes for great racing.

“My job is to just make good runs. That’s what it’s all about. Pop the clutch, tuck in and make a clean, straight run.”

Sitting fourth after three rounds on Saturday, Krawiec came to the line in the third-from-last pairing of the evening and laid down an impressive 6.819-second pass at 197.02 mph to wrestle the top spot away from Chip Ellis. Two pairs later, Angelle Sampey also leapfrogged the Charlotte race winner with a 6.831 at 197.02 mph on her Star Racing / Precision Service Equipment Buell to qualify second.

Ellis, who was quickest entering the final session, dropped to third with a 6.850 at 196.53 mph. Jerry Savoie (6.852) and Matt Smith (6.860) round out the top five.

“We didn’t think it was going to run that number. We were picking away at it a little bit at a time, but this session we benefitted from it drying out a little more,” Krawiec said. “You have a lot of water grains in the air and as the water grains go up, the air gets a little worse, and as the day went along it started to dry out. That definitely helps a naturally aspirated motorcycle.

“Still, to be quite honest, I didn’t think it was going to run that fast. But all the stars aligned and I made a really nice, clean run.”

With the top spot on the ladder comes a draw of the 16th motorcycle on the grid, and that rider is Joe DeSantis. Still, after qualifying second one week ago and losing in the first round to Karen Stoffer, Krawiec knows he can’t look past anyone in this cutthroat Pro Stock Motorcycle class.

“It says something for this whole class. Everybody is putting forth the effort to make sure they have a great motorcycle,” Krawiec said. “Heck, I lost first round last race. I can’t remember the last time I lost first round. Qualifying is pretty important no matter where you are, but it doesn’t mean that if you’re number one, number two, number three, it’s no gimme. Anybody can go out there and knock you out. So you had better be prepared, you better be ready going into race day.”

Krawiec will be seeking his third career win at Gateway Motorsports Park when eliminations get underway on Sunday.