The points lead can inspire a team to do many things. For Bobby Hilton, it inspired him to go out and purchase a championship-winning car. He has great expectations for the season now that his team has an essential piece of the puzzle - the AA/FD formerly driven by Tony Bartone.

Hilton fields a Nostalgia Top Fuel dragster driven by his son Tyler. Tyler took over the points lead in June when a staged boycott by members of the All American Fuel Dragsters group kept all but two teams from attending the NHRA Heritage Series' Holley Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green, Ky.

The Hiltons not only attended but won the event and grabbed the accompanying points. He held the points lead until the most recent event in Tulsa.

The final showdown at the 2022 NHRA Hot Rod Reunion will tell the final story. It's a new car and engine program that's got the Hiltons amped. They recently abandoned their Chevrolet program to run a Hemi.

"Our Chevrolet, we've made the quickest and fastest runs in the history of that class with a big block, but it's not enough," Hilton said. "To be in the top three cars, you will have to run 5.60s. And that car wasn't going to run .60s unless I went to a whole 'nother cylinder head program, intake manifold, and then I'm dumping money. I'm dumping money."

Hilton figured if he was going to spend, it might as well have been on a program where not as much money would equate to gain. It took a lot of money to make even the smallest gains with the Chevrolet.

"I was looking to make our program better," Hilton said. "We're committed to this class, and you know that from what we had earlier in the year. I want to make it a better class. So I felt like we needed to go to the next level. So might as well do it now and go all in for Bakersfield."

Hilton knows the challenge of competing for a championship. His last full-on title chase came in 1980 in IHRA when he finished fourth behind Jeb Allen, Richard Tharp, and Mark Oswald. A year earlier, he was third behind Connie Kalitta and Clayton Harris. He drove the Jim and Allison Lee Top Fuel dragster.

"Winning this championship makes us even more legitimate in what we're doing," Hilton said.

Hilton has plenty of optimism for the future of the Nostalgia Top Fuel class.

"I think it's headed it in the right direction," Hilton said. "There's some good new cars coming out in California. Will we ever get to a full 16-car field? I don't think so. I mean, I don't really think so. I don't think that there's enough cars, but a good strong eight-car show with a good bump spot is a better show. We want to be one of the top three cars."

It's a beefy commitment of financial resources, but Hilton believes it's worth seeing his son have a good shot at winning against the best.

"I want to put him in the best equipment he can have because he's a great driver," Hilton said. "I blew him up a couple of times, so his confidence level was sinking. Thank you to the Bartones and the Lebor Family for allowing us to buy the car. They didn't have to sell it to us and put us in the position to race with these guys and, of course, our family and friends to get us there. It's a great story."

It's an even more remarkable story if it delivers a title to the Hilton Family, who has invested so much into the sport over the years.