Gaige Herrera all but had the job as a rider for Vance & Hines when he was called into Terry Vance's office for one last meeting. Vance looked at Herrera with a simple question, "Why am I hiring you?"

Herrera's response was prophetic: "I hope to show you on the track," he responded.

It's safe to say now that Vance, once a dominant rider himself, knows why. 

On Sunday, at the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals, Herrera singled to his third consecutive victory, effectively winning the race and becoming the first NHRA competitor to sweep the NHRA's Western Swing since Antron Brown pulled off the feat in 2009. 

To cap off his historic Western Swing sweep, Herrera also picked up a No. 1 qualifier to leave no doubt he's the frontrunner for the world championship this season. 

On his way to history, Herrera took out Ryan Oehler, Mark Ingwerson, Karen Stoffer, and then Matt Smith, who had a cam sensor break and had to watch Herrera sprint away on a solo run. 

"I can't put it into words, honestly," Herrera said. "To be able to do what has been accomplished in this past three weeks, it's incredible. When we went to Denver, I didn't even think it would've been possible. We came home with the win, but we were struggling a little bit in the beginning, and I didn't see that win. That was probably the hardest win this season, I feel like, for the whole team. They put in a lot of effort. They always do. 

"That just got us the momentum and the drive to keep pushing forward to get the whole sweep and to be able to do it. I never thought I'd add my name to that part of history."

While Herrera has often looked as cool as the other side of the pillow, the butterflies began to swarm on Sunday. It was a familiar face that got them all stirred up. 

"I would say in the semis against Karen Stoffer," Herrera admitted. "Her and her husband, Gary Stoffer, are the ones that got me out here last year. None of this would've been possible, or I wouldn't be out here, if it wasn't for them. So to be able to race someone like her, that basically taught me quite a bit about Pro Stock Motorcycle, and so I was pretty nervous about her. It's like anything when you're teaching someone -- you don't always teach everyone all your tricks type of thing. Even though she's on a two-valve, she was running really good this weekend.

"Then, in the final round, the whole time before we even pulled a stage, I just had this weird feeling in my gut type of thing. Anytime you've got to race Matt, you never know what's going to happen. I never want to take a win that way or get a win that way. I wish we could have waited until he got the bike figured out, but unfortunately, we couldn't. Today was definitely the most I've ever been nervous, back-to-back rounds, and it paid off."

The one measure that helped him through Herrera was keeping focused on the big picture. 

"I try to look a little further ahead, personally, than look at what's actually happening right now at the moment, as far as a racing type of thing," Herrera explained. "As soon as I go on the starting line, I focus on what I've got to do, and I think that's what I work on the most. I'm not really a big person to show emotion, and I was screaming and yelling in my helmet, and all that yesterday (with a Call-Out victory) and today just to be able to do what we did. I'm out of words. I don't talk much as it is. It's an incredible feeling."