Bobby Cottrell has nearly done it all behind the wheel of a Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car. Over the past seven seasons, Cottrell, at the wheel of the Bucky Austin-owned green Bardahl machine, has won countless races, including six consecutive NHRA Heritage Series Funny Car Championships. However, on Sunday at the Nevada Nationals, Cottrell did the impossible and accomplished what nearly every drag racer hopes to do in a season, and that's go undefeated. The six-time champ took home the trophy, winning the Legends Nitro Funny Car division at Las Vegas for the second year in a row, defeating Geoff Monise in the final round to complete his perfect season, not losing a single round of competition all year. 

"We're excited. It's surreal," Cottrell said. "I had to take a moment by myself and just realize what has gone on this year, you know, with all the heartache and everything. Unfortunately, we weren't able to race Geoff Monise and his team, but a win is a win, obviously. You know it's awesome. I got the best team and the best car. Bucky (Austin), Mike (O'Brien), Jeannette, the whole team, my girlfriend Heidi, my parents were here, my brothers were here. I couldn't have asked for a better ending. It's been a whirlwind the past seven and a half years. I would have never ever expected this. Hats off to them like I always say. We're excited for next year, Bucky is already talking about the March Meet, so we're excited." 

It was no easy road to the trophy for the Southern California native. In the opening round, which was run in the cool temperatures on Saturday night under the lights at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Cottrell, the No. 1 qualifier, laid down the second-best run of the session, stopping the thousand-foot clocks with a blistering 4.777 second past at over 239 miles to defeat an always tough Tim Boychuk in the "Happy Hour" '69 Camaro. 

Cottrell backed up his strong opening round pass in the semifinals on Sunday afternoon with an even quicker 4.755 at 241, this time taking out the popular "California Hustler" car and driver Kamaka Pocock. 

The Bardahl team was going to have their work cut out for them in the final as they were set to square off against the driver of the "Quarter Pounder" Nitro Funny Car Geoff Monise in a rematch of the Legends Nitro Funny Car final from Thunder Valley in Bristol, Tennessee. Monise was strong all weekend long, qualifying in the No. 3 spot with a stout 4.770, then improved on that by one-thousandth of a second in the first round on Saturday night with a 4.769 to defeat Billy Morris, which held for low elapsed time of the round. 

Unfortunately, Monise hurt a motor in his semifinal win over Derrick Moreira and was unable to make the call in the final, giving Cottrell a single for the win. Nonetheless, despite having already secured the victory, crew chief Bucky Austin did not go up to the starting line gun-shy in the final. He tuned Cottrell to a scintillating 4.731 at 242, which was low elapsed time of the event and finished the year in style. 

"We went 242 (miles per hour) which is big for our class. Obviously, with this association, we run 1,000 feet, so it takes a little bit of a different setup. I never want to lift off the gas pedal. But we're just excited we came home with the win, and we're going to celebrate now."