It wasn’t as though Mike Salinas hadn’t won in Top Fuel competition.

It wasn’t as though Mike Salinas hadn’t won earlier this year.

The tears in Mike Salinas’ eyes didn’t appear simply because he captured Sunday’s Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway. They formed when it hit him that he is finally positioned to be a serious Camping World Drag Racing Series championship contender.

That’s why, when he was overcome with emotion during his post-race interview, he needed a full 10 seconds to compose himself before he could continue his answer to a question. 

Salinas’ overpowering victory in the finals was the fifth in his Top Fuel career. His 3.708-second, 330.47-mph blast easily took down fellow finalists Spencer Massey, Josh Hart and Cameron Ferre, and it moved him into second in the points behind Brittany Force. Ferre was the runner-up at a distant 3.986, 272.56, Massey smoked the tires the moment he launched, and Hart experienced problems downtrack.

“Most people don’t understand, this stuff is hard. We’re racing with the best guys in the world,” said Salinas, who celebrated his 61st birthday last Wednesday. “But if you believe you belong here and you do the right things to stay here, you’re going to be here and you’re going to win. 

“This isn’t going to be the end for us, I just know it. Everybody in our pit, they’ve got raw emotions for what we’re doing. This is hard stuff. We take this stuff so hard and take it to heart, I honestly feel bad for the other guys that didn’t win. I’ve worked for this 17, 18, 20 years, losing, losing, losing. You know how you’ve got to pick yourself up every day from losing to win? That’s us. That’s why we named this team Scrappers. We don’t quit, we just keep going.”

Under the usual format of pairs racing, Salinas wouldn’t have advanced past the first round. Doug Kalitta’s 3.725 was the first to the line in his quad, but because of the four-wide format, in which two cars from each foursome advance, Salinas, who was the runner-up at 3.765, also survived to fight again. 

In the semifinals, Kalitta and No. 1 qualifier Justin Ashley both fell victim to tire smoke. Salinas won the foursome at 3.708, and Ferre moved forward at 3.92. 

Ferre’s place in the finals was his first, and he achieved it on a day in which he was fortunate to be in the field. Ferre, driving for team owner Todd Paton, was the No. 16 qualifier at 3.854 seconds – the same time posted by Kyle Wurtzel. Ferre got the spot in the field by virtue of covering the 1,000-foot distance with a higher speed, 319.45 mph to Wurtzel’s 317.72.

Salinas sat out the 2020-wracked COVID-19 season, and he rebounded last year with his best season to date. Salinas won at Bristol and was runner-up at St. Louis, the second Las Vegas race and Epping en route to a third-place points performance.

He nailed down career win No. 4 earlier this season at Phoenix, where he took down Jim Maroney, Shawn Langdon, Steve Torrence and Clay Millican. 

For Salinas to have won twice in the first six events of the season – a feat matched only by Force – sent a message that he can, indeed, succeed without Alan Johnson as crew chief. When Johnson made a move to Kalitta Motorsports, Salinas put his team’s fortunes in the hands of Rob Flynn, and in the wake of Sunday’s triumph, he couldn’t stop singing the praises of his new tuner/crew chief.

Johnson, Salinas said, “taught all of us. He taught (Steve) Torrence, he taught Brittany, he taught Tony Schumacher, he taught all these different things. So indirectly, Alan is racing himself out here, and it’s a great thing. What he does bring to the table is a discipline that most people don’t have in racing. He’s an amazing man, he really is.”

Salinas then described Flynn as “the most underrated, most underappreciated crew chief out here; probably the most brilliant. He takes everybody else’s stuff and manipulates it and makes it ours and it makes it better. We have a car that is going down the track almost every run and not hurting parts. … Knock on wood, but it’s been good. When you do see us spin tires or something, it’s because we’re trying something new, and we know that we’re pretty good in the show.”

Salinas won’t have much time to bask in victory. The next event is May 13-15 in Dinwiddie, Virginia, and Salinas said that Flynn would be the first one thinking of the task ahead.

“Everything that we do out here is setting us up for Virginia already. I will bet you – after we finish celebrating – Rob will go in the trailer and he’ll sit there for another couple of hours looking at Virginia already,” he said. “That man lives in that trailer on that computer. It’s crazy. So mild-mannered, sweet man, just gentle. But he’s deadly, he’s deadly, that guy’s deadly. I’m lucky to drive the car that that guy tunes.”

Two of the pacesetters early in the season were ousted in the semifinals.

Force, who was victorious in the Las Vegas and Houston events prior to Charlotte, saw her streak come to an end in a cloud of tire smoke. Pomona winner Ashley suffered the same fate to end his race.

An even greater surprise occurred in the opening round when another streak came to an end. Steve Torrence, the four-time reigning Camping World Top Fuel champion, qualified No. 3 of the 18 dragsters on hand, and he entered eliminations in a bid to win the Circle K Four-Wide Nationals for the fifth consecutive time. But that prospect vanished shy of the finish line when his car briefly spun the rear tires, then had its supercharger pop loose. Torrence coasted across the finish line in 3.967 seconds and a slowing 270 mph.

The best set of performances came in a first-round foursome that involved Massey, Force, Tony Schumacher and Leah Pruett. Massey crossed the finish line first at 3.749, and Force was second at 3.732 to advance. Pruett reached the line just 9/1,000ths of a second behind Force at 3.741, and Schumacher was in the mix to the end at 3.753.