Mike Salinas saved the best for last Saturday.

The veteran team owner and driver clocked a 3.722-second time at 324.59 mph in Q4 Saturday to claim the No. 1 qualifying spot at the Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“Yeah, it was pretty hectic,” Salinas said. “We had a couple problems. We had an electronic device go out on the warmup and so we literally thrashed to get it done. Everybody was up here. We were running. I suited up in the pit, came out, we warmed the car up. We didn't run the valves the second time; threw oil in it and the crew was amazing.”

Salinas, who saw the departure of world championship crew chiefs Alan Johnson and Brian Husen in the offseason, hasn’t shown any setbacks so far in the young 2022 season.

Salinas arrived in Las Vegas first in the season points standings, thanks to winning in Phoenix, the second race of the season. He also has been strong in qualifying, starting third (Pomona, Calif.), second (Phoenix), fourth (Gainesville) and now first in Vegas.

This is Salinas’ ninth No. 1 qualifier of his Top Fuel career.

“Oh, I love this track,” he said. “It's pretty amazing, actually. First win here. We just got to do that Sunday and we're good. It's race day, so whatever we got to do to get to the end.”

Salinas is searching for his fifth career NHRA Top Fuel win Sunday and he likes how his team is performing.

“We're having fun,” Salinas said. “The last couple years, they were good, but it got us to where we're at now with everybody. Everyone on the crew knows their job their job. We don't have to worry about the car not being ready and prepared. And if you have that, that's 90 percent, I'd say even 95 or 98 percent of the deal. The tuner is actually the guy that just plugs the numbers in and looks up the track and everything. But when you have that combination? And the main thing is everybody's having fun. Everybody's having fun. You come to our pit it's calm, it's relaxed and it's ‘let's go win races,’ you know?”

As good as Salinas was in Q4, he wanted more.

“Actually, our goal was to go out and run a 71,” he said. “I think I went in a little bit deeper than I should have. If I would've flicked the bulb, I think we could have (done a) little bit more. 

“I had to calm myself down a little bit more, but it was pretty intense to be honest with you. That was our first thrash. Let's go. I mean, we didn't think we were going to make it at all. I mean, we were in the staging lanes there and he's still putting in the run on the computer. Something happened to the computer and he's tapping it and doing all these little weird things, but he got it. And the nice part is everybody kept their composure. We know we have a fast car; we know we can run. Like Sunday, we're going to be 77 degrees. There's going to be some 70 runs and maybe some  69 runs because it's race day and everybody's going to try to outdo each other.”

The Four-Wide format is something Salinas doesn’t fret over.

“You know, in two wide, four wide? I don't know who we're racing around and don't even care,” Salinas said. “I go up there on every run. I race the track and myself and just do the best I can on every run. Because you let anybody get in your head, you get yourself in trouble. So, I learned some really good things from some good crew chiefs, and you just put that in your bank and go do a good job. Go do your job and have fun. I mean, you know, and that's the name of the game here.”

Salinas is excited about lane choice for E1 against his three other opponents.

“It is everything to be honest with you,” Salinas said. “One thing that we have is a plan. The (crew chiefs) have a plan of how to go win, from how to attack and how to execute winning a race. And that was some of the nicest things that I got to learn being with some of these other guys.

“So, it's just not like we bring our car to the track. They have an actual plan of, "we need to be here; we need to do that; we need to be No. 1 qualifier; okay, we got three points on that. I never thought about this stuff before, but now I think about, ‘okay, every run is three points, three points, three points,’ you know? It's going to help at the end of the year."