Mike Salinas has showed signs of greatness in his Top Fuel career but now he’s showing he’s the best driver in the NHRA Camping World Drag Series.

Salinas won for the fourth time this season when he took the victory at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals Sunday in Norwalk, Ohio and moved into the season points lead.

Salinas clocked a 3.706-second elapsed time at 333.58 mph in the finals to beat Josh Hart who clocked a 3.783-second elapsed time at 325.37 mph.

This was Salinas’ seventh win of his career, and he now has won races in Phoenix, Charlotte, Epping, and Norwalk.

Salinas beat Tony Schumacher, Doug Kalitta, Leah Pruitt, and Hart, after a rain delay, on Sunday during his victory parade.

“The team, (crew chief) Rob Flynn brought a calm to the team and what I really love about him is everybody on the team has a voice,” Salinas said. “They see things that he can’t see all the time so they will share things with him. After this win, he will have a sit down with all of them and ask them ‘What did we learn?’ ‘What did we see?’ ‘What can we do to improve?’ That’s what makes this team a real team. They have a say so. I think that is unprecedent and it makes everybody on the team feel like they are the crew chief. That’s what I like to see on the team.

“Today was a crazy day. I was happy to get through first round. We deal with things one at a time and try not get too far ahead of ourselves and make sure we are doing what we supposed to be doing.”

Salinas did address the doubters who would have never thought he would have won four of the first nine races of the 2022 season with Flynn as his crew chief.

“I spent a full day with Rob before we hired him,” Salinas said. “We went to the Nitro Revival and from Vegas we rode in the car, and we talked, and I already had a whole list of runs I had questions on. What amazed me is that I would ask him about a run from four years ago and he knew exactly what happened. He knew what the timing was, and he knew what everything was on the car. What most people don’t realize is he has like a photographic memory. He is pretty darn amazing. I looked at it like this guy is awesome. Everything I asked he had an answer for.”

Salinas, who owns his Scrapper Racing team, made his Top Fuel debut in 2011 and he won his first two races in 2019 and one last year. He became emotional when talking about the state of his team now.

“Basically, we have a lot of racing left,” Salinas said. “The media stuff can get a little cocky and a little crazy. That means stay humble and show them on the track. You don’t have to tell people how good you are. Just show them on the track. If we are holding the championship trophy that means we were meant to be here and earned the right to be out here. I have been working at this a lot of years, and I’m sorry I’m getting emotional, but you start to think how hard it was to get here.

“We earned the right to be up here. We belong here. It is a good thing because we have a great group, great team and I’m learning how to drive again. We are just having fun. My guys are going crazy because this has been there best year ever and they been in the sport a long time. It is really cool.”