Gil Kirk knows he has a place in drag racing history even if he never wins another. 

Kirk, the driving force behind the Rod Shop brand, had six wins as an owner/sponsor going into Monday's Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. 

Though the brand has been dormant for a while, on Monday, Kirk and his driver, Greg Stanfield, provided an object lesson that the Rod Shop team is still about winning and doing so on the grand stage of drag racing. 

Stanfield drove Kirk's new Camaro to the inaugural title of the Factory X division, stopping Ford Standout Chris Holbrook in the final round. 

"It's very exciting," a reenergized Kirk said. "I mean, that was our seventh win at Indy, and it's our 45th; Greg got our 45th. We're trying to get to 50 with that Factory X car, and it was really exciting. A beautiful bunch of people had a great time here. It's an exciting class, and we have a long way to go."

Kirk, who has fielded cars with such drag racing royalty as Butch Leal, Tommy Ivo, Don Carlton, Bob Riffle, Larry Morgan, and more, gravitated to the final driver on his long roster to drive his Factory X Camaro. 

Kirk knew his last driver could still deliver, and he did. 

"It's huge, especially for Gil Kirk, Rick Kirk with the Rod Shop," Stanfield said, clenching the historic NHRA Wally. "Everybody that's put their effort in getting this project together, all the guys at Jerry Haas Race Cars, all of our guys, big thanks to Ross Wilson helping me out with the car. And it's pretty cool."

Stanfield made the most of his debut by qualifying No. 1 with a 7.236 elapsed time. He then went on to record the top speed of the event in the first round, running 191.95 to take out James Cowan in the semi-finals. In the final round, Stanfield uncorked a 7.254, 191.73 to stop Holbrook, who drifted out of the groove and pedaled, running an 8.047, 173.09.

Stanfield, though, showed reasonable consistency with a new combination.

" It's just going to take us a little bit to figure out what the car wants," Stanfield explained. "We struggled big time starting out here, so our main goal was just to try to run down the racetrack. So, it worked out.

This being a new class, obviously, the rules package is challenging, so dealing with a big torque monster engine and a little it's going to take a little bit. But we're going to figure it out."

For Kirk, just getting the new class off of the ground is a big start. 

"These cars are beautiful, and they're fast, and the guys that are in here know how to make them fast, but they've just got to get enough cars out here and get working on them to get to the place," Kirk said. "Our car's got a lot left in it."