Defending series champion Josh Hernandez ended a week he'd just as soon forget with a memorable win over championship rival Tony Pontieri at the 23rd annual Super Start Batteries NHRA Nationals to pad his lead in the JEGS ProMod Challenge points to 59 with two races left on the 2008 schedule.

A resident of the Houston suburb of Conroe, Texas, Hernandez spent the first half of the week digging out from the widespread damage caused by Hurricane Ike.

He managed to make it to the race on time and didn't miss a beat once he got here, qualifying No. 1 and marching through the field to win with a 6.036 at 237.21 mph in his Team Rage '68 Camaro to Pontieri's 6.245 at 234.82 mph in his Quality Plus Compressors '57 Bel Air.

Defending series champion Josh Hernandez ended a week he'd just as soon forget with a memorable win over championship rival Tony Pontieri at the 23rd annual Super Start Batteries NHRA Nationals to pad his lead in the JEGS ProMod Challenge points to 59 with two races left on the 2008 schedule.

A resident of the Houston suburb of Conroe, Texas, Hernandez spent the first half of the week digging out from the widespread damage caused by Hurricane Ike.

He managed to make it to the race on time and didn't miss a beat once he got here, qualifying No. 1 and marching through the field to win with a 6.036 at 237.21 mph in his Team Rage '68 Camaro to Pontieri's 6.245 at 234.82 mph in his Quality Plus Compressors '57 Bel Air.

"It's been a long, tough week," Hernandez said. "We witnessed the massive destruction of Hurricane Ike in our hometown and then we lost Steve Engel on Sunday night, man, it's been emotionally draining on all of us. This win is a shining moment and certainly lifts us up a bit, but it's not a cure-all. We're still hurting for Steve's family and we have a lot of work to do back home."

Of Hernandez's seven passes this weekend, four were in the five-second range. He was the only driver to cover the quarter mile at the Texas Motorplex in less than six seconds.

"Two of the three six-second passes would have been five-second runs also if the driver had done a better job," Hernandez said. "With Troy Critchley building our motors and Jim Oddy tuning this thing, I know I have the best equipment available. It's so huge for a driver to go into a race with the confidence in their team that I have with this group. I need to take them to the championship because they deserve it."

This was Hernandez's 16th win in the JEGS ProMod Challenge, twice as many as his nearest challenger. He'll now try to add two more before the season's over.

Although five other racers remain mathematically alive in the '08 title chase, the battle has basically come down to Hernandez and Pontieri, who led the points for three races earlier this season before Hernandez took over in Indianapolis.

"It'll go the distance," Hernandez said. "Tony and I both qualified well and ran well here. It's been a neck-in-neck battle with him for awhile now. We're sitting here 1-2 in the points and it's really anybodies game. We have an edge, but there are still two races left."