This past offseason, NHRA Pro Stock driver Vincent Nobile turned some heads when he switched teams.

Nobile left the team of Allen Johnson and Jeg Coughlin and joined the Summit /Ken Black Racing team with drivers Greg Anderson and Jason Line.

On Sunday, Nobile’s switch finally paid dividends in the winners circle as he beat Line on a holeshot in the finals to win the O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 Nationals in Chicago.

Nobile clocked a 6.655-second lap at 208.01 mph, while Line came in at 6.637 seconds at 209.26 mph. The difference was at the starting line as Nobile had an .004 light and Line was at .031.

“This was a great win, and kind of a long time coming,” Nobile said. “I know I’m young and I’ve won some races, but when you go on a streak like I’ve done and not won one you kind of forget what it feels like. (Sunday) definitely refreshed my memory and I owe it all to my team. They gave me a great car last week in Epping and I had a good light over there and I kind of choked a little bit and short shifted and cost us a race. I came back here confident and I think I redeemed myself.”

Nobile lost at Epping in the second round to Dave Connolly.

“Nobody’s perfect and I’m the first one to admit it when I made the mistake,” Nobile said about Epping. “From the outside looking in, everybody was saying .006 light and they didn’t have the car, but that wasn’t the case. I had the car and it was just me. This is a team effort and when I make a mistake, I’m the first one to say it. But (Sunday), as a team we all came together and we all did our jobs and we got it done.”

This was Nobile’s ninth win of his career and his first since Seattle last season.

Nobile beat Jonathon Gray, Coughlin and Shane Tucker before edging Line in the final round. Coughlin handed Nobile the win with a red light.

“I knew I had a fast race car and I was determined to redeem myself from last weekend,” Nobile said. “As a team we won and that was the ultimate goal. We want to have two of our cars in the finals at every race. Then, it came down to the individual (winner) and Jason and I went up there and duked it out. I told him in the pits, yes we won as a team, but I’m going to still go out there and cut your eyes out, and it worked to my benefit.”

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