Robert Hight’s victory parade made another stop this weekend, culminating with his win in Seattle.

Hight, out of the John Force Racing stable, won for the sixth time this season in 13 races with his latest triumphant coming at the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals Sunday.

Hight clocked a 3.975-second elapsed time at 319.98 mph to defeat J.R. Todd of the Kalitta Motorsports team, who came in at 3.978 seconds at 324.75 mph.

“We weren't the best car in qualifying,” Hight said. “The four flat that we ran (Saturday) was the quickest in the heat, so we had some confidence coming in, but when you race Ron Capps first round, that's not what you expect, a guy like that when you qualify fifth. But we had to be on our game. We had low ET every round today. And up until a couple races ago, we didn't have the best 130-degree track combination. We were good when the conditions got good, and it cooled down. Jimmy and Chris can always make horsepower and stick it to the ground.

“But I'm really proud of these guys, what they did today in the heat, and they stepped up big. It's amazing. To have six wins at this point in your season, I'd have lost money if I'd have bet on that. So proud of these guys. It's good to win. For Flav-R-Pac, they've sponsored this race and it's good to be back in Seattle. We miss it. We love coming up here. We love a traditional Western Swing and things are getting normal. I really want to thank all the fans for coming out here and beating this heat. It was brutal. And being in this fire suit, I really don't want to be in it any longer. I want to take it off for the photos. Think they'll let me do that?”

This was Hight’s 59th career NHRA nitro Funny Car victory and improved his elimination round record to 36-7.

“These three races, he's (Hagan) lost first round, and we've gained big, big points because going into the Western Swing, I think we were 21 points ahead,” Hight said. “So, it was anybody's game. And then we've come through. We've capitalized when we needed to and gained every week on him. I know it can turn around in Topeka (Kan.) and go the other direction. But with three races left, I think we have a 220-point lead. If we just stay steady, we're going to go into this Countdown (the last six races of the season) No. 1 and that can be a big deal. I've lost a championship by 19 points, and you go into the No. 1 spot, you have 20 points, so every point counts. It's a bummer that they're going to take them all away from us, but I've also been on the other end of that and capitalized on that. So, it is what it is. I'm going to make a prediction right now. We're going to need to win four or five more if this Auto Club Chevy wants to be the champ at the end of the year.”

On Sunday, Hight defeated Capps, Alexis DeJoria, his boss, John Force and then Todd.

“We have the best four car team that we've ever had at John Force Racing,” Hight said. “Top to bottom, we're stout. Everybody gets along. They work together and teamwork is what it's all about. Everybody pulling in the same direction and it's good. I don't think we've ever had the points lead in Funny Car and Top Fuel at the same time, other than when we won the championship at the last race of the year in '17. So that's a big deal. But as a driver, it gives you a lot of confidence knowing that even if you're struggling that this team can turn it around on race day and they amaze me. So, I just got to keep doing my job.”

As scorching hot as Hight’s team has been in 2022, he’s not ready to throw out any victory totals for himself by season’s end.

“You've got to just go one round at a time,” he said. “We've got to go to Topeka and first things first, qualify. You've got to face it like that. If you start looking at end results, you're going to get beat up pretty good. This is a very humbling sport and there's a lot of good cars out here. A lot of good competition. We just got to keep staying focused and working toward the goal one round at a time. And like I said on TV, we're going to Norwalk next weekend for a match race. So, three in a row wasn't enough. We're going to go and do a little testing, try to win another race. We take that race seriously. And then it's right back at Topeka and Brainerd back-to-back, before Indy. So, I think it was seven weekends straight for the Auto Club team and the Peak team and ready to go again.”

World championship or bust isn’t the rallying cry for his team, but Hight knows that is the ultimate goal.

"Like I said on TV, we're going to Norwalk next weekend for a match race. So, three in a row wasn't enough. We're going to go and do a little testing, try to win another race. We take that race seriously. And then it's right back at Topeka and Brainerd back-to-back, before Indy. So, I think it was seven weekends straight for the Auto Club team and the Peak team.

“I mean, I honestly, every year, think that we're capable of winning a championship,” Hight said. “We sat out in '20, came back in '21 and I just knew that we were going to pick up and get moving where we left off in '19. We had the dominant car there too. It didn't happen. We've learned a lot from last year and we've gone back to a friendlier combination, and I think there's more left in it. We're going to do some testing along the way here. We want to get better. The competition, they're right with us. It's not like we're dominating in ET like Brittney is. It's a battle in Funny Car. Hundredth here, hundredth there, thousandths. I mean, when I pulled the chutes tonight, JR blew by me. You can't see the win light here. I was on the radio, ‘Did we get him?’ And finally, Chris got on the radio and said we won. That's just the best feeling. This relief comes across you. It's big. So got to keep fighting, keep digging and work hard.”