LE Tonglet rode like a champion Monday and returned to the prestigious U.S. Nationals winner’s circle at Indianapolis.

The veteran Pro Stock Motorcycle rider, who pilots a Nitro Fish-sponsored Suzuki, upended reigning world champion and defending Indy champ Eddie Krawiec in the finals at Lucas Oil Raceway.

Tonglet clocked a 6.864-second lap at 197.10 mph to edge Krawiec’s Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson, which came in at 6.884 seconds at 197.02 mph.

“This feels good,” Tonglet said. “This is a long weekend and it is the biggest race of the year and to win it twice is huge.”

This is was Tonglet’s 19th career PSM national event win and his second at the U.S. Nationals. He also won the “Big Go” in 2010 and then went on to capture his lone world championship.

“We’re not only going to follow (the 2010 script), but we are going to do better than we did in 2010 and we’re going to come out victorious once again,” Tonglet said. “In 2010, we didn’t have a sponsor until we met Kenny Koretsky (of Nitro Fish) in the winner’s circle here and we were loading the trailer up and Eddie (Krawiec) and Andrew (Hines) walked down and told us we won double the amount we thought we won and my dad (Gary’s) eyes just got huge. He loved to hear that news and now we know what you get when you win it.”

Tonglet now has three wins this year – Richmond, Va., Sonoma, Calif., and Indy. He competes for White Alligator Racing with his teammate, 2016 Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion Jerry Savoie.

Krawiec was aiming for his third win at Indy as he also was victorious in 2014 and 2017.

Krawiec, who was sporting the special edition Mello Yello wrapped Harley by virtue of being the reigning world champ, will leave Indy and enter the six-race Countdown to the Championship as the points leader. Tonglet is third in the points – behind Krawiec and Hines.

“They (the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team) is labeled the kings,” Tonglet said. “We can outrun them, and we can beat them, we just have to be perfect. They haul butt in qualifying, but on race day anything can happen and usually they kind of slow down as rounds go on and we step up. I have all the faith in the world in Tim (Kulungian, his crew chief) and everybody on the team that our bike is going to be 100 percent when I stage that thing.”

Tonglet claimed victories over Ryan Oehler, Chip Ellis, a third Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson rider, Steve Johnson and Krawiec Monday.

“That’s not the first time they rolled a third bike out and the same outcome happened the last time they brought it,” Tonglet said. “They can bring as many as they want. We are just going to knock them down, one by one.”