For the last two seasons, Competition Eliminator racer Rodger Brogdon has watched countless numbers of racers in the complex division enjoy the fruits of winning what has turned into one of the more lucrative divisions in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series. Sunday afternoon in Noble, Oklahoma, the Santa Claus of Competition Eliminator was able to keep a few of his presents.

Brogdon, for the first time since 2007, scored his 11th NHRA Div. 4 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event victory, stopping Sean Dodd in the final round of the Thunder Valley Raceway Park in Noble, Oklahoma. In a double-redlight, Dodd had the first infraction handing the victory to Brogdon.

Brogdon entered the first round of eliminations as the No. 15 qualifier and opened eliminations with a victory over Clark Smiley. He then drove past Brooke Heckel and Greg Kamplain and was able to fend off Brad Plourd in the semis.

Like in NASCAR, Competition Eliminator is all about finding the right line and running it to the end.

"Much more goes into the strategy than many people realize," Brogdon explained. "And then, not only do you have to do your job, especially in the later rounds, you got to have a little luck. If other people hadn't gotten any CIC, you're going to the next round with quite a bit of a challenge against them. You focus on your round by round, and hopefully, the cards fall in your favor, and they did this weekend for sure."

Noble is a barometer-challenged track, but this didn't stop the Competition Eliminator field from getting nicked by the CIC (Competition Index Control) process and personal index adjustments. Few got out of Noble without an adjustment.

Brogdon, who races B/Altered Automatic, essentially an old-school NHRA Pro Stocker with carburetors, an automatic transmission, and a little extra weight, admits he even took a hit.

"Three permanent [.03]. And if you'd have told me when the year started, I'd got three permanent in Noble, Oklahoma, I'd thought you lost your mind," Brogdon admitted. "But for some reason, the weather got right, and it's not going to hurt me, though. I've got plenty left, and we got to the semi-finals. I told my guy, we're going to run it down there as deep as we have to win this one, and things worked out."

The Rooftec Competition Eliminator Bonus Fund has ensured, for two straight NHRA Division 4 events, that the field has filled the 32-car ladder.

"We have a bunch of fast cars," Brogdon said. "Any race you go to in Comp, where the break is around .60 under or sometimes a lot quicker, it's just hard to win. You got to have a few lucky breaks. And, of course, I got one in the final. To me, this weekend, the tree was really long.

"Man, I just stayed behind it long as I could there in the final, and thank goodness Dodd left a little bit earlier than me. So, it's just part of it, and I'm very fortunate but very happy."

The official Comp Eliminator D4 Bonus fund points have yet to be released as of this media deadline. Still, by all accounts, Houston winner Rick Brown now leads, followed by Monty Bogan Jr. Brogdon also moved up in the standings of the lucrative program, which offers a $50,000 shootout to the top 16 point earners when the tour rolls into Indianapolis for the NHRA U.S. Nationals.

As much as Brogdon credits a successful strategy for Sunday's win, he quickly says it wasn't the key to victory. That honor belongs to the three people who come to retrieve him at the end of the run.

"It's really good for my guys because they all worked really hard, and I couldn't do this without them because I'm so busy at work," said Brogdon, who is considered the largest roofer in Texas. "It doesn't matter what it takes from those guys; they'll drive all over the country, they'll go back and forth to Odessa, they get the engines fixed. So, it's definitely a team effort, I can promise you. I'm very proud of everybody."