A year ago, the first part of the season was a struggle for Pro Stock driver Matt Hartford.

Through the first five races, he won just two rounds, and his best qualifying position was eighth.

He seems to have changed his fortunes in 2023.

Hartford clocked a 6.599-second lap at 206.45 mph in Q3 Saturday to take the No. 1 qualifying spot at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

This was Hartford’s first No. 1 qualifying spot in his Pro Stock career, a career that kicked off in 2006.

“Yeah, this is awesome for our entire team,” said Hartford, who pilots the Total Seal Chevy Camaro. “We've been working on this since 2006, so it's been a long time coming. Some of these people come out here and within their first 2, 3, 4 races, they get a number one and we just always watch and go, ‘Wow, someday we'll get it.’ But it's just hats off to having a great team around me and having a great race car. Jerry Haas builds a fantastic car; KB Titan is building great power right now and our team is really gelled, and we just keep our heads down and focus on one run at a time.”

Hartford has spent his career going from just hoping to make the field at national events to becoming a championship contender. That’s what makes being the No. 1 qualifier – in his 161st career Pro Stock race – so rewarding, because it is far from an easy feat to accomplish.

“Some people have made it look pretty easy,” Hartford said about being No. 1 qualifier. “There's been people that come out and immediately they can be a number one qualifier. It is extremely hard to qualify, let alone qualify in the top half, and then qualify number one, and I think we've proven that. There was a time... We talked about it at dinner last night. There was a time when we were 16th and just overjoyed. It was like, ‘Oh my God, we're in.’ And last night we're all sitting at dinner with our heads down going, ‘Man, we're number two and we know we could have gone to number one and we just missed it.’ So, it's just a different mindset I guess as you progress up through the sport. And our team has had... We've come from the bottom, and we've worked our way up. Not that we're on the top by any means, but we have a fast car right now and it's one run at a time and our whole goal is to turn this yellow hat into a blue hat and then turn them into a white hat.”

Hartford arrived in Vegas tied for second in the points standings and fresh off a runner-up finish at the previous event – the Winternationals at Pomona, where he qualified second.

Hartford finished a career-best fifth in the points standings in 2019 and 2020 and was sixth a year ago. Hartford has five career Pro Stock wins one each season since 2018 but has yet to find Victory Lane in Vegas.

Hartford’s first win was in Houston in 2018, and he said winning can be less of challenge than being the No. 1 qualifier.

“You can win from anywhere and if you have some good racing luck, you can certainly win and not have the fastest car or not drive the best if people have issues against you,” Hartford said. “To qualify number one, it is all about you have to make less mistakes than anybody else out there and you have to have killer power. If you make a mistake, you're not qualifying number one. If you don't have good power, you're not qualifying number one. 

“So, I think it takes more to qualify number one than it actually does to win because you can win on luck. Go back to St. Louis, that one year I think Warren Johnson rolled to the water box, rolled to the scales, rolled to the next one. I don't think he raced anybody for four rounds, and he won the race. So that's luck. Number one qualifiers ain't luck.”

After competing in NHRA’s Pro Stock class for nearly two decades, Hartford has always kept plugging away and he acknowledged he thought he should have had a No. 1 qualifier position at least once last season.

“I think we looked back at last year and we let a lot of things get away from us,” he said. “There were a lot of rounds that we looked at and we were pretty disappointed that we knew we could have won the round and the box score didn't necessarily show it, but we had a fast car from Denver on last year. But the box score showed that we didn't perform as well as we could have. And this year our whole goal was come out here and just focus on what we know and forget about any distractions out there. 

“I don't care what's going on with Greg Anderson or Bo Butner or Erica Enders. It doesn't matter if we go up there, if I let the clutch out on time and I hit my shift points and we set up the car correctly, let the win lights come on where they may, when you're always worried about who's in the other lane or what they're doing or what they're thinking or why are they faster, you lose sight of your own program. Our goal is to worry about ourselves and stay in the confines of our own trailer. We're not out socializing, we're not out hanging out. We're there to work on our car and just stay in our own little box.”

Hartford will begin Sunday by competing in a quadrant with Camrie Caruso, Erica Enders, and Jerry Tucker. Hartford has a 6-3 elimination round record this season. Hartford’s focus Saturday night is to get ready for the Four-Wide experience.

“Camrie’s number three in points. She's won a race this year. She's been a number one qualifier. She's in my quad,” Hartford said. “Erica is as badass as any driver's ever been, she's in my quad. And then Jerry Tucker's obviously got a lot of power. He's got all the lead camp behind him. So, for us we need to roll up there, and do the same thing. One, just make sure you get in, get both bulbs lit on your tree. 

“It doesn't matter when, just make sure they're on before those seven seconds are out. And other than that, be ready because you have no idea if you win, lose, or draw when you get to the other end. It's a tough race doing this Four-Wide deal. Once again, focus on your own program, focus on doing everything that you can correctly in your lane and see what happens.”