Sometimes destiny will give a racer a clue and for Pat Musi, his couldn’t have been any clearer.

Going into the second round, Musi struggled to get the engine to fire on his electronic fuel injected, nitrous equipped Dodge Stratus. He was on the verge of handing Ed Hoover and easy victory. One last try, and the car fired. A  harried Musi then rolled to the line and not only grabbed the holeshot but also the round win. Two more times, in close races, Musi snagged win lights at the NHRA Summit Nationals.

Inevitably, Musi was the last man standing, a strange feeling for the man who once challenged the Pro Stock titans on a shoestring budget back in the 1980s.

Sometimes destiny will give a racer a clue and for Pat Musi, his couldn’t have been any clearer.

Going into the second round, Musi struggled to get the engine to fire on his electronic fuel injected, nitrous equipped Dodge Stratus. He was on the verge of handing Ed Hoover and easy victory. One last try, and the car fired. A  harried Musi then rolled to the line and not only grabbed the holeshot but also the round win. Two more times, in close races, Musi snagged win lights at the NHRA Summit Nationals.

Inevitably, Musi was the last man standing, a strange feeling for the man who once challenged the Pro Stock titans on a shoestring budget back in the 1980s.

“I don’t want to sound cocky because I’m not but I just felt like on Saturday we could win this deal if we just kept our act together,” Musi admitted. “We know what kind of power we’ve got. We’ve got everything we need now, everything could fall into place.”

Musi has only raced twice on the Get Screened America Pro Modified Series and in those events, scored a quarter-final finish and a win which has eluded him for 29 years. The last time Musi was in an NHRA professional final was 1981 when he lost to the late Lee Shepherd during the NHRA Gatornationals.

Just like the present, Musi wasn’t even supposed to make a ripple in the Pro Stock lake back in 1981. He chased a full schedule on the NHRA tour with the help of Joe Folgore who came to him with the idea of racing a full tour. Folgore provided Musi with what he needed to run with the best drivers of the era.

In the end, Musi finished fourth in the 1981 NHRA Pro Stock standings. Musi wonders if history might be repeating itself again but understands with only two events, it’s awful hard to crack the top ten. The biggest point Musi wants to make is that an EFI-equipped Pro Mod now stands a chance against the supercharged class leaders.

“I think we got their attention now and I think it’s going to be better the more guys we get running it, feeding us information,” Musi said. “Rickie’s [Smith, semi-finalist] running it, and [Dennis] Radford’s running it, it just keeps getting better.”

The car Musi drives carries his powertrain but the chassis belongs to Curacao businessman Frank Brandao. Next weekend Musi will race on the Caribbean island while Rickie Smith will use the same Sonny Leonard engine  with Musi's EFI at an ADRL event in Topeka.

As much as Musi wants to celebrate his victory, he wants the point known of his feelings about Ed Hoover’s character, the racer who waited on him to pull to the starting line.

“Ed is one of the nicest, gentleman drivers,” Musi said. “I would have done the same for him. I’ve waited on guys. I’ve shut my car off and waited for guys. There are some guys who would run up and put top bulb on them. I wouldn’t blame him if he did. But I have to hand it to him, man, he was a gentleman. He waited, he made sure he gave me enough time, I wasn’t sure I was going to get up there. I really didn’t think, I just stayed on that button until it welded itself to the flywheel.”

And for Musi, on this day, destiny was a trip to victory lane.