George Washington was many things to many people and is largely credited with the paraphrased comment in 1799, "The best offense is a strong defense."

With all due respect, the first president of the United States never had to battle the likes of Ron Capps, Matt Hagan, and Bob Tasca III. And, he never did so behind the wheel of an 11,000-horse, nitro-burning Funny Car.

Let this sink in. Hight scored his second win of the Countdown to the Championship at the NHRA Midwest Nationals, stopping Ron Capps. Hight has won eight national events in 2022, two of three in the Countdown, and only leads Capps by 46 points. That's two rounds and six qualifying bonus points. 

"You definitely can't be racing defensively," Hight admitted. "You've got to be on offense out here. Even if you're the points leader, you've got to be pushing and pushing it right to the edge every single round. I really feel that I have the best guys in my corner for that. This AAA Missouri team, you see what they've done all year. It's impressive. It's not like we don't have any competition. It gets tougher every weekend, and it seems like every round, it's tougher, every round you go. So we just keep digging and getting it done."

Even in winning, Hight can be his harshest critic. 

"I didn't have my best lights all day, especially second round against Wilkerson, " Hight explained. 

Hight wasn't exaggerating the point, as the final round was the only time he was quicker off the line all day against an opponent. He was .041 to Capps' .059 and needed it with the defending series champion having the edge in the final round. 

"I really did good in qualifying, so I wasn't very happy," Hight added. "I knew going up in the final that I was going to have to pull one out because Capps, he was running better than us, and he had lane choice. And I just thought, 'Man, if I can hit the tree, and Jimmy and Chris can step this thing up, ooh, it's going to be a great race." 

Instant gratification, the way today's world works, wasn't working in Hight's favor. Hight somewhat knew he'd aced the test in the final round but had to go old school to see if he passed. 

"When I got in the car, my radio didn't work," Hight explained. "So I could talk, but I couldn't hear anything. That was painful. And then, the win lights on the wall aren't working, or at least I didn't see them."

"So it's like they're pushing you off the end of the track, and you have no idea whether you won or lost. And you're trying to look over where the TV booth is to see if I can see [team member] Eric or anybody going crazy, and nothing's happening. I go around the corner; I'm thinking, 'Well, do I go left as a loser? Or right for an interview?" 

"When I saw Eric when I got around the corner, it was pretty awesome, but I don't like waiting that long.

"I want to know right away if I won and be able to congratulate the guys because they're going nuts. All the fun's being had out on the starting line, not down there in the shutdown area."

Even Hight will admit, no radio or win lights; winning this time in St. Louis was much better than his last time in 2018 when he exploded at the finish line, launching the body off of his Funny Car and leaving him with a broken collarbone. 

"I didn't get to celebrate with the team in the Winner Circle.," Hight said. "We blew it up and had to go to the hospital, and do a repair job, and back at it. We went on to win the next race, which was Dallas, and that's what we need to do again."

Well, minus the explosion part. Hight knows he cannot afford any setbacks in this intense championship battle. 

"It's amazing, the competition level. It's never been tougher. It's as tough as it gets. And to say that we've got eight wins, that makes me very, very proud. That's crazy. And if somebody would've told me at the beginning of the year, 'You're going to have eight wins,' I'd have said, "You're crazy." I'd have said anybody was crazy if anybody had eight wins. But here's the hard truth, if I don't have more than eight, I probably won't win the championship. So we got to stay focused and keep working hard. And we have three to go, 40-some point lead. That's nothing. So the final round was a 40-point swing."

"If Capps beats me, we go to Dallas dejected, more pressure on you and single-digit lead. Now we go in with a 46-point lead, which is no cakewalk, or it's not a security blanket by any means. So we just got to stay focused and work hard, and this team is up for it. At the beginning of the Countdown, we got together, and it's like, 'Okay, let's give it all we got." 

"And basically, looking back to last year, we struggled. We were horrible. We just didn't get it done. So who knows if you're ever going to be in this position again? To win another championship with the kind of competition you have. So we don't need to leave anything left on the table. We need to give it all we got, and this whole group is up for it."

Hight knows he needs to stay the course. 

"The truth is we really don't need to change anything that we've done all year," Hight said. "Do what got you here. And what we did, what we've done all year, has worked. So we can't change any of that. We can't overthink it; we can't overstress. We just got to keep steady doing what we did all year."

And that includes being on the offensive.