Aaron Stanfield had heard enough of the questions about what would happen if he lined up against his father with a championship at stake.
Sunday in St. Louis, he answered them with a .018 reaction time and one-thousandth of a second.
“There was a lot of questions that round if we were going to race fair or if I were going to lay down or give him that round,”
Stanfield said after beating his father, Greg, in the Pro Stock final of the NHRA Midwest Nationals. “I think there’s a lot of people that need to tip the hat right there.
“Obviously they were wrong in Rockingham. I know they think I’m the best driver that’s ever gone on the racetrack, but I can make mistakes as well. So that shows it right there, what my dad and myself are all about. And that’s racing as hard as we can possibly race. And one thousandths at the stripe. I mean, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
No, it probably couldn’t have gotten much better.
Aaron left first and needed every bit of it, running 6.556 seconds at 209.20 mph to hold off Greg’s quicker 6.547 at 209.85. The margin at the finish line was .001 second, giving Aaron his third victory of the season and 17th of his career.
It also ended a rather one-sided family statistic. Greg entered the final 6-1 against his son and had won their only previous final-round meeting.
More importantly, Aaron had made his point on the racetrack.
The questions followed a mistake against his father at Rockingham, where Greg went on to win and take control of the Pro Stock championship chase. Aaron knew what some were thinking, particularly with the possibility that father and son could meet again during the Countdown.
There wasn’t much left to debate after St. Louis. Greg needed every round he could get for the championship, Aaron needed a win after enduring his own difficult stretch, and neither gave the other anything.
“It doesn’t bother me,” Aaron said of his previous record against his father. “I go up every round and do the absolute best I can do and that’s all I can do.
“Other than two rounds, I’ve made some major mistakes. I’ve made a major mistake in Sonoma when I raced him and I made a major mistake at the last race, personal mistake. And outside of that, I’ve raced him very well. He’s just come out on the better end of it. That doesn’t get in my head. That doesn’t bother me. I just go up there and do the absolute best I can do every round.”
Getting back to that level hadn’t been easy.
Stanfield had been fighting through a stretch of first-round losses and adjusting to a different race car. After Rockingham, the car returned to Jerry Haas Race Cars for additional work, and Stanfield said the difference showed immediately in St. Louis.
“It’s the same thing as always. You keep your head down and you keep working,” Stanfield said. “You keep trying to get better and keep doing the best you can absolutely do and don’t lose faith.
“I mean, drag racing is all about highs and lows. We’ve had a few high moments this year and we went through a period of a long low period of losing first round and whatnot. We made the decision to change to a different race car.”
Stanfield admitted the car did more for him early Sunday than he did for the car. By the time eliminations reached the business end, the driver had caught up.
“At the start of the day, I would definitely say my car kind of pulled me along,” Stanfield said. “And as the day went on, I started finding myself on the tree and ended up in the final round there with my dad.
“And that’s a pretty special thing. I mean, it’s hard to get to the final round alone and to be able to share it with my dad is pretty cool.”
Stanfield defeated Deric Kramer, Matt Hartford and Troy Coughlin Jr. to reach the final. His semifinal against Coughlin included some starting-line gamesmanship, something Stanfield acknowledged was intentional as he searched for any advantage available.
“I haven’t been driving good, so I needed to do things to throw other people off their game, off the things that they’re used to doing and other drivers letting that happen,” Stanfield said. “So I’m not going to let that happen.
“And credit to TJ. It absolutely did not affect him whatsoever and he’s been driving very good. And that just came down to a good race and I got away with one for sure.”
The victory kept Elite Motorsports perfect through the first three races of the Countdown. Coughlin won at Martin, Greg Stanfield followed at Rockingham and Aaron completed the sweep in St. Louis.
Greg still accomplished plenty Sunday. He defeated Mason McGaha, Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Dallas Glenn to reach his fourth final of the season, extending his championship advantage to 71 points over Glenn and 81 over Hartford.
Aaron moved to seventh, although he wasn’t shy about whose championship he would like to see celebrated if his own opportunity doesn’t materialize.
“I don’t know what kind of shot I would have at winning a championship, but I would sure like to see my dad win a championship,” Stanfield said. “He’s fought his whole entire career for this spot.
“I had to beg him to get back in a Pro Stock car. He’s obviously still got a lot left in the tank and it’s special to me to see him doing so well. And he’s taught me absolutely everything I know in the race car. And I told him I was fixing to show him what he’s taught me.”
