Robert Hight has won a lot of races. He has won at a lot of different racetracks.

But the one blemish on an otherwise impressive resume that has spanned 57 victories over 17 years has been a win at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. That is, until Sunday.

Hight, a familiar face at the Bader family-owned facility in northern Ohio, having competed regularly at the national event and the annual Night Under Fire each year at the facility, finally collected the win he coveted most when he crossed the finish line first ahead of Bob Tasca Sunday at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.

“This is big. I’ve never won here. We come here just about every year and race the Night Under Fire which is their big match race. I look forward to it every year. It is amazing and it is so much fun to come here in front of all of these fans and I’ve won that thing a lot. But I’ve never been able to get it done at the national event. I’ve been in the final a few times, but never got it done,” Hight said. “Being able to cross this one off, this is big. To do it and get the points lead back? It is like, who would think coming here that you would have three wins and you wouldn’t be the points leader? It just shows you how tough this class is. Either way, this was a big day for us.”

Hight had to wait nearly three hours to check a win at Summit Motorsports Park off of his bucket list when a heavy downpour between the semifinal and final rounds delayed the championship tilt. But the shower and cooler temperatures played right into the hands of Hight and his John Force Racing team.

Hight earned his fourth win of the season, and the 57th of his career, in a tremendous final round matchup with Bob Tasca, who himself was looking for some redemption entering the weekend winless on the year. Hight got away first and ran a steady 3.944-second lap at 327.51 mph in his AAA Ohio Chevrolet Camaro, dispatching of Tasca and his 3.962 at 330.63 mph.

“The conditions kind of came to us. We didn’t have the best 130 degree racetrack car. When it gets a little cooler with the clouds, you are not going to beat Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham,” Hight said. “It actually cooled down in the semis. We ran our best run in the semis with an 89. The rain didn’t hurt anything, but the NHRA did such an amazing job getting this track ready to go and back up to speed for all of these cars.”

The win was not without some drama, however. While the team relished the opportunity to race on a cooler track in the final round, the wet conditions threw a bit of a curveball for Hight and his crew that they were forced to address prior to the deciding round.

“We had the engine together and we knew it was going to rain, but then we took it apart because the water went way up,” Hight said. “Jimmy wasn’t about to risk going up there and dropping a cylinder. If we wouldn’t have taken the heads off and changed the compression, that is exactly what we would have been fighting.”

Hight advanced to his 90th career final round, and his sixth final in 10 races this season, with wins over Jim Campbell, Alexis DeJoria and J.R. Todd. The former champion had strong showings in rounds one and two with a 3.903 and a 3.997 as his opponents ran into trouble, but a great side-by-side battle with Todd in the semifinal set the stage for Hight’s first Norwalk trophy.

Hight won that matchup with the quickest lap of eliminations - a 3.890 at 328.06 mph. Todd, driving his DHL Toyota Supra for Kalitta Motorsports, had an equally stout 3.916 at 329.75.

While he wasn’t victorious, Tasca’s final round visit was like a victory. With zero final rounds and back-to-back first round losses coming into this weekend’s event at Summit Motorsports Park, Tasca was looking for something - anything - to get his Ford Motorcraft-backed team back on track.

With his back against the wall, Tasca went three masterful rounds on race day ending with the close loss to Hight and his powerhouse John Force Racing team. Tasca faced the three winningest drivers this season in back-to-back-to-back rounds, winning two out of three. He collected round wins over Mike McIntire Jr., Matt Hagan and Ron Capps on the strength of bracket-like passes of 3.921, 3.941 and 3.933 respectively, before falling to Hight in the final.

After a busy week traveling with his family, Hight is excited to take this special Wally back home as he now prepares for one of his favorite times of the year - the famed Western Swing of tracks on the West Coast.

“I am so proud of this team. They have worked so hard. This shows that we are legit out here and that we are here to win,” Hight said. “We’ve got two weeks to get ready for Denver and go out there and try and sweep the swing and that is exactly what this Auto Club team is going to do. I’ve had so much fun this week being with my family on the road and I am not ready for it to end.”

With the win, Hight retakes the Funny Car points lead over Matt Hagan who was defeated in the second round. So as the veteran racer approaches the halfway point of the year, how does he grade his performance so far?

“I give our team an A for the first half of the season. We have done a great job. We have to get an A for the second half if we want to win a championship,” Hight said. “I only have a narrow points lead and we are not even halfway through the season yet. There are a lot of good cars and it is not going to get any easier from here forward. We just have to work harder and want it more than the rest of them. Hopefully we can come out on top.”