Shootouts have been a part of life in the National Hot Rod Association for many years.

The most recent version of shootout drag racing — the Traxxas Nitro Shootout — was a popular side event for the sport for a few years that matched up some of the top teams in the sport racing for big money. But in that race the fields were set ahead of time.

In the new iteration of shootout racing, the Pep Boys NHRA Funny Car Allstar Callout, a new format set up some unique matchups and interesting possibilities. In this race, the drivers choose their opponents, beginning with the top qualifier on down.

While many expected top seed Robert Hight to call on someone much farther down the pecking order — someone like Tim Wilkerson who has just one round win in the last four races, or Matt Hagan who hasn’t been lighting the world up recently — Hight stunned the crowd with his decision. He chose the hottest driver in the sport as his first-round matchup on Sunday, calling out Bob Tasca III, who has won three of the past four races on the NHRA tour.

While the crowd may have been stunned by that decision, one person who wasn’t surprised was Tasca.

“That’s the way it should be,” Tasca said. “The two cars running as good as anyone out here the first round, get it over with and see what we can do. We’ll see you soon.”

The Pep Boys NHRA Funny Car Allstar Callout will take place Sunday, with the first and final rounds taking place in conjunction with the regular qualifying sessions, sandwiched between a special semifinal round during the afternoon.

So how does Tasca approach going against the points leader and winningest driver in the field in round one of the specialty race?

“One round at a time,” Tasca said. “It is a big deal for the fans. It is a lot of fun to have a format like that, but the bottom line is any one of those eight cars can win it and we just have to go and run our race and see how we do.”

Calling out the hottest driver in the field was certainly a bold and calculated decision. What was Hight thinking in choosing a duel with Tasca?

“If anyone thinks that one of these other seven drivers is easier than another or one is a gimme, you have another thing coming,” said Hight during his callout selection.

“Funny Car has never been more competitive. We thought about it. The whole Auto Club team got together trying to figure out what was the best strategy and coming in number one you have an advantage. You get to pick first and you are going to have lane choice in that first round. So I am going to pick a guy that has been doing some winning lately, Bob Tasca.

“I get up to race that team, and they get up to race me. If you want to win this thing and take home the cash at the end of the day you are going to have to beat a guy or gal like that. We are going to get it out of the way in the first round.”

After opening the year with mediocre results across the sports first nine races, and sitting eighth in the standings at the halfway point of the regular season, Tasca began to turn the corner at Norwalk with a semifinal finish. Since then, Tasca has been to five final rounds in the last six races with three wins.

While you would think that such a turnaround would accompany some magic found in the car, you would be wrong. In this instance, the turnaround was simply incremental gains finally clicking, and that is certainly a scary thing for the rest of the field.

“The real success of this team has been over the last couple of years, not just the last couple of weeks. We have just been working on the setup, knowing where we were deficient and working towards improving in those areas,” Tasca said. “There hasn’t been anything specific, just a lot of hard work and a lot of great execution by the team. The guys have a good handle on it right now and we are going to try and keep it up.”

As if pairing the winningest and the hottest drivers on the tour weren’t enough, Hight and Tasca found themselves separated by just eight thousandths of a second on the qualifying ladder after posting the first- and second-best times Friday night. Tasca had the early advantage with a 3.878-second pass at 331.53 mph, but Hight battled back one pair later with a 3.870 at 331.94 mph to take the provisional pole.