One can easily draw the conclusion that this year’s visit to the Texas Motorplex is already better after just one day for Robert Hight than last year’s outing.

Last year, Hight missed the field and team leader John Force survived a near career-ending crash during eliminations on Sunday.

Tonight before a packed Texas Motorplex crowd, Hight made two tremendous runs including a 4.06 second blast in the second session that brought the NHRA fans to their feet. The run was the 2nd quickest since the NHRA truncated the racing distance to 1000 feet following the tragic loss of world champion Scott Kalitta. Hight also is the owner of the quickest 1000 foot pass set during the Seattle event in July. His excitement was evident at the top end of the race track immediately after his run. One can easily draw the conclusion that this year’s visit to the Texas Motorplex is already better after just one day for Robert Hight than last year’s outing.

Last year, Hight missed the field and team leader John Force survived a near career-ending crash during eliminations on Sunday.

Tonight before a packed Texas Motorplex crowd, Hight made two tremendous runs including a 4.06 second blast in the second session that brought the NHRA fans to their feet. The run was the 2nd quickest since the NHRA truncated the racing distance to 1000 feet following the tragic loss of world champion Scott Kalitta. Hight also is the owner of the quickest 1000 foot pass set during the Seattle event in July. His excitement was evident at the top end of the race track immediately after his run.

“That is a great run for the AAA Texas team. What a difference a year makes. We came here last year and didn’t qualify. We just have to forget that. We are looking like the Dallas Cowboys and that is what we want,” said Hight.

Last year at the Fall Nationals Hight was forced to watch his championship hopes take a huge hit from the sidelines. He knows that he has to make every run count this season if he is going to wind up on top at the last race in Pomona.

“Even though this is a year later, being here still brings back memories of not qualifying last year once the Countdown started. Honestly that is what killed us for the championship. You think about that. Last year my Mustang was actually weak which is unusual for us with my crew chief Jimmy Prock. Usually we are too aggressive. Tonight we were set up perfectly because we went down the track and made a perfect run in the first session,” said the two-time POWERade Championship runner-up. “We could get after it a little bit. The 4.06 was just an unbelievable run. It was perfectly straight. It was 267 mph at half track. It was flying. It is really huge to out qualify all these other guys in the Countdown which we did at Charlotte as well. As tight as Funny Cars are and as tight as the racing is the extra qualifying points in the end hopefully gets us the championship.