On Friday after capturing the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot at the Nevada Nationals, Mike Salinas believed this was a race he could win – and he was right.

Salinas, from the No. 1 qualifying position, mowed down the competition to claim the title at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday.

In the finals, Salinas clocked a 3.673-second elapsed time at 333.16 mph to defeat Justin Ashley, who slowed to 5.796 seconds, 120.56 mph.

“Basically, we have been working on this car since Gainesville,” Salinas said. “We have had some real special things it has been doing, and it has showed signs of greatness, but the consistency has been evading us. As I was trying to get more consistent running these 60 numbers, today is the best day we have had all year. The car is showing amazing signs. If we can do what we are doing here it will be a great weekend in Pomona and that’s what we are looking at.”

The NHRA concludes its 2023 season at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals on Nov. 9-12 in Pomona, Calif.

Salinas’ ninth career Top Fuel Wally was his second of the season to go with the one he earned at the season-opener in Gainesville, Fla.

Salinas’ victory parade consisted of wins over Rob Passey, Tony Schumacher, Josh Hart, and Ashley. It also was his second career win in Las Vegas, with the first coming in 2019.

Salinas arrived at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway sitting in sixth place in the season standings, 131 points behind leader Leah Pruett. With his win, Salinas moved up to fourth in the points, 76 points behind leader Steve Torrence. However, Salinas said he wasn’t crunching numbers on Sunday.

“I told my guys we need to win this race and the next one to even matter,” Salinas said. “Let’s focus on one round at a time, one race at a time. We achieved the goal of winning this race, so we have eight rounds to win at the next race. That’s how we have to look at it because we’re a stepchild on the outside looking in. We’re the Gaige Herrera (in Pro Stock Motorcycle) who is so far ahead. The funny thing is our car has had the potential all year, but we came across some stuff that we have been working, like (Monday), we are going to test. We are going to test (Monday) because we are serious about where we are going for Pomona.

“We have been in a certain zip code with these numbers or in our own eyes, we are not even in the game.”

Salinas took a moment to describe his day that saw him turn on four win lights.

“The car is responding to what (crew chief) Rob (Flynn) is doing with it and it seems to like it,” Salinas said. “Rob told me if I listen to what the car is asking for, we’re going to do really well and evidently he listened to the car today.”

The SEMA Show takes place Oct. 31-Nov. 3 at the Convention Center in Las Vegas and Salinas will have a presence there; his dragster will, at leasdt.

“We’re putting our car in the NHRA booth,” Salinas said. “The winning car from Vegas is going to be in the SEMA show for NHRA. It is a chance to showcase what we do at NHRA, and hopefully we can get new corporate sponsors coming in for NHRA and ourselves because we have another Top Fuel car coming. So we are looking at corporate America to come in and start working with partnerships with us.”

When Salinas snared the race win by defeating Ashley, he didn’t hide his emotions which he had no problem displaying.

“You get beat down -- you lose, you lose, you lose -- and then one day everything falls into place and you’re like you need to pinch yourself, stay humble, relaxed,” Salinas said. “You look at it like ‘Wow! It is possible again.' Look, we have been trying. It is not like we have not been trying all year. Stuff doesn’t work. You get these moments. This stuff is hard. It is really hard to do. So, when you win one of these races, all these owners will call me up and tell me thank you, 'Great job.’ Appreciate what you’re doing because we do the same for each other. It is hard. You can appreciate it and respect it.

“To be honest, if you guys weren’t up there, I would be crying my eyes out. It worked again. You have these little battles with yourself, and Rob Flynn put it the best, you don’t have to do this, you have to do that and if we do that you don’t have to tell anybody. Today, straight out, we were bad ass. We were the best car out here and it showed. That’s why we are here.”

The magnitude of the moment caused Salinas to get emotional.

“I’m sitting at racetrack where I first started this stuff and you were going nowhere,” Salinas said. “Then you wind up with these guys and you don’t believe you’re here sometimes, so that’s why it is a little emotional. I remember being with the Sportsmen guys at the race where you were insignificant, it didn’t matter. Being from there to here, it is a heck of a rollercoaster ride, and it is really cool. That’s what you saw.”

Salinas couldn’t heap enough praise on his team for its performance Sunday.

“Today was just an exceptional day. I take my hat off to the team, all the people that support us from Red Line Oil, the Adam’s Pools to Pleasanton Ready Mix and Valley Services and just everybody in the group. And it really, really, it's a group effort. My guys have been working their butts off. And they're going to do whatever they do tonight to celebrate and everything. And then we'll be here at nine o'clock, 10 o'clock when we get to run so we can get ready for Pomona because we know there's more in the tank for us.”

Salinas did acknowledge he had Frank Hawley – world championship driver and owner of the Frank Hawley Drag Racing School – as special guest with his team in Vegas.

“I wanted Frank to come in and evaluate us as a team, and that's what he's doing here,” Salinas said. “He’s just evaluating everything that we do as a team. And sometimes you need another opinion outside the box. He did some great stuff with us this weekend and showed us some shortcuts on a couple of things. So, it's really nice.”