The mechanic in Robert Hight needed an answer. The driver in him understood his crew had the issue completely under control. 

Thus was the mindset of the 2009 NHRA Funny Car champion Hight as his Auto Club of Southern California Camaro Funny Car exploded an engine during Saturday's qualifying at the NHRA U.S. Nationals, turning the car's body into carbon fiber confetti.

Hight has been on both sides of the mayhem. He's been the crewman who watched a Funny Car self-destruct while standing on the starting line as well as from inside the heavily-shrouded and safe confines of the drive's cockpit.

This kind of experience is what led one legend to commend Hight on his pathway to becoming one of the front-running drivers in the Funny Car division.

Hight has been around the sport long enough to know when Ken Veney speaks, you listen. When Veney compliments, you take in the praise and later when you're alone you fist-pump like you've won the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes. 

Veney is a man of few words, who always operated under the mantra of his race cars did the talking, so he didn't have to. Voted No. 46 amongst all drag racers by the NHRA during its 50th Anniversary celebration, he was the seventh most successful drag racer in the series when he retired in 1988. As a tuner, he guided four different drivers to 13 race wins. 

Veney's words were music to Hight's ears, even if he was inquiring about the qualifying fireball he'd experienced the night before. 

“He looked at me and said, 'If I had to compare you to a driver, I’d compare you to Mike Dunn," Hight explained. "If I were to come back in the sport again today, this is the kind of driver I would want. Somebody to understand the car."

Hight's reverence could be traced to his days when he worked his way from a lowly crewman into the pinnacle of drag racing occupations, a professional driver. 

"Ken Veney was an innovator, one of the first guys to ever build billet cylinder heads and according to Austin Coil, was the first guy he'd ever seen with laid back headers," Hight said. "The conversation with him made me just stop and think of how our sport has progressed and I think a lot of people forget about these geniuses like Ken Veney, Dale Armstrong and Austin Coil. Those guys are the reason our cars are running the way they do today."

Understanding why they run this way is knowledge Hight gleaned from the simplest of tasks such as wiping slicks or washing parts, or learning the intricacies of what made a nitro engine tick like a finely crafted Swiss watch. 

Hight was like a sponge learning as much as he could. He learned from two of John Force's finest crew chiefs, and there was the belief he needed to learn it all on the first go-round because refresher courses weren't always available. 

"Luckily for me, I was around great people," Hight explained. "I had guys like Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly to teach me, and their instruction was endless. The possibilities were endless. I always paid attention and learned everything I could comprehend because it's not too often you have the best teachers right in front of you."

The opportunity to drive a race car presented itself, and the novice driver quickly ascended from rookie driver to Rookie of the Year, and five years later as an NHRA World Champion. 

"Never, ever saw driving in my future," Hight admitted. "I always believed that you need to dream big. When you’re a little kid and want to be a baseball player or a fireman, at some point you have to look at reality, but I also think if you put a lot of hard work into it and a lot of effort you can get there."

Saturday evening in Indianapolis, the whole process came full circle for Hight. The circle never stops rotating.