A year ago, Tommy Johnson Jr. had a career-best finish of second place in NHRA’s nitro Funny Car point standings.

Now, the veteran driver is proving he is going to be a championship contender again in 2017.

Johnson Jr. won his first race of the season, edging rookie Jonnie Lindberg in the finals of the Denso Spark Plugs Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Johnson Jr. clocked a 3.933-second elapsed time at 323.66 mph to best Lindberg’s 4.016-second elapsed at 302.14 mph.

This is Johnson Jr.’s 16th career national event win in 402 career starts.

On Sunday, Johnson Jr. ousted Jim Campbell, Robert Hight, John Force and Lindberg. Lindberg, who drives for Jim Head Racing, made his second consecutive final round appearance. He lost in the finals to John Force at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., March 19.

“It started off Friday with a very tricky race track and very few cars went down it,” Johnson Jr. said. “We kind of went into Saturday and said, ‘boy I hope we can figure this thing out,’ and the weather changed a little bit and we’re not used to running in those conditions. The weather changed to a little warmer race track and it came to everybody and we just made the appropriate changes like we normally would to the car and it went right down the race track. (Sunday) also was a pretty trying day as well because it was hot. It is probably the hottest we’ve seen this season yet and we’re at a little bit of altitude so that changes the tune-up and it kind of changes the clutch curve, so the guys really have to work at it and they did a great job.”

Johnson Jr. set the stage for race day with a 3.943-second elapsed time to beat Campbell.

“When we came out first round and was low ET by three hundredths, I thought ‘Oh it is going to be a good day. We dropped a hole second round and we had a decent run in the semis and a nice run in the finals. They figured it out and made some changes in the final.”

Johnson was thrilled to reach the winners circle again, especially at The Strip in Las Vegas.

“This is such a great facility,” he said. “You come in the gate and you have a good feeling because you’ve had some success here. I’ve had one here in Vegas prior to this, but I’ve had two or three runner-ups. Last year wasn’t so good and it was good to come back and redeem myself. I saw John (Collins, Johnson’s crew chief) dive into the box for all the adjustments for the clutch and the timers for ignition and he was confident about it. It’s kind of neat to have chemistry with your crew chief and I can tell by the look on his face and the way he carries himself if he’s confident or if he’s scratching his head a little bit. When I saw him shut the lid in the box, I thought that we were going to be good.”