What NHRA Pro Stock racer Gaige Herrera has done since the start of the 2023 season – his first with powerhouse team Vance & Hines – has been mind-boggling.

He won the 2023 world championship, has 20 national-event wins, had a streak of 46 consecutive elimination-round victories, and has been a No. 1 qualifier 23 times, including nine this season.

Herrera’s latest top qualifying position came Saturday when he clocked a 6.813-second elapsed time at 198.20 mph in Q3 to take the top spot at the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Herrera, who rides a RevZilla/Mission/Vance & Hines Suzuki, barely edged out his rival Matt Smith, who is No. 2 on the qualifying ladder with a 6.822-second elapsed time at 198.70 mph.

“We started off a little rough,” Herrera said of Friday’s two qualifying sessions. “I went to the No. 2 spot against Matt Q1, and Q2 we had a little engine malfunction. We are pushing these bikes as hard as we can to keep up with Matt, and so parts break, which is part of racing. In Q3, it went the 81, which was very good. I was kind of shocked it ran that. The bike was so smooth and went dead straight, it felt slow. I thought, ‘There was no way it ran that.’

“It is good, all those little (qualifying) points. Matt got some Friday, and I got some (Saturday). I think we are back with how we started this weekend, and every little point is adding up right now and it is getting critical.”

Herrera, who has a 63-point lead over Smith, will face Kahea Woods in round one. The 2024 NHRA season concludes with the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals, Nov. 14-17 in Pomona, Calif.

“I’m trying not to think about it,” Herrera said. “I’m just going out there having fun. And you can say you can try to not think about it, but at the end of the day we are all concerned about the grand prize at the end. That’s the hard part. You try and stay level headed and not think about it, especially when you’re on the bike and you’re watching what Matt runs or all these other guys. It is hard to block it out, but I try and block it out as best as I can.”

Although Herrera has had a meteoric rise in the PSM class in a very short period of time, he acknowledged he’s enjoying the ride even more this year – especially the six-race Countdown to the Championship.

“I’m actually enjoying this year a lot better,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I didn’t enjoy last year, but it was kind of one of those things that it didn’t seem real. I ran away with it last year and almost locked it up here, and this season is totally different. I feel like I had to come in with a different mindset, but I have enjoyed it.

“I definitely have had to push myself to stay focused and do what I have to do and not worry about everything on the outside. There’s stuff on the internet that began this season, and it went back and forth … and I just blocked it out and tried to have fun. The main thing with me is that I just like to have fun, and the championship is just a little bonus we are able to get.”

With two races left in the season and eight more rounds to possibly win, Herrera is embracing the moment.

“I love it,” he said. “All the chatter was between Matt, and I wasn’t really directly between us, but it just went back and forth on the internet. This is what it is all about. It is going to come down to the last race and that’s what makes it so much more fun.”