It’s been 14 years since Cruz Pedregon has won back-to-back Funny Car races.

It’s been even longer since he’s entered the final race of the season leading the points standings.

Pedregon pulled off the feat in the final round of Las Vegas as he knocked off the No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight en route to unseating previous leader Tim Wilkerson, who suffered a first round loss.

It’s been 14 years since Cruz Pedregon has won back-to-back Funny Car races.

It’s been even longer since he’s entered the final race of the season leading the points standings.

Pedregon pulled off the feat in the final round of Las Vegas as he knocked off the No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight en route to unseating previous leader Tim Wilkerson, who suffered a first round loss.

Pedregon used a quicker reaction time and led Hight to the stripe with a 4.100 elapsed time at 304.67 miles per hour. For his part, Hight turned in a game 4.111 second run.

Pedregon aided his championship hopes by eliminating Jack Beckman in the first round, Gary Densham in the second, preventing an all John Force Racing final round by eliminating John Force in the semis.

He believes he’s a different driver today than he was back in the day when he won the 1992 championship driving a McDonald’s sponsored Funny Car for team owner Larry Minor.

“I handle the pressure a lot better now; back in 1992 I was on autopilot,” Pedregon said. “I was really in awe of everything that was coming at me. I think I was just going off of adrenaline, I didn’t really understand anything. I didn’t understand what I needed to do outside of the car to be successful like I have this time around. I learned a lot of tough lessons; I want to be good and to keep driving. I want to be real good, but I have had to learn through the school of hard knocks to be able to be a more effective driver. This means more to me because I’ve been a more effective driver, in spite of the pressure I think I can do what I have to do and not worry about Championships. If it comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

Besides the largest difference is this championship run in on his dime – an opportunity he wondered whether would happen or not.

“I thought maybe I’m just going to suck at this the rest of my life and I was just the luckiest guy in the world to drive some cars that were good,” Pedregon admitted. “As competitive as I am, I thought I was desperate to be a catch on fire guy, which would really never do anything except for driving some good cars. Through hard work, dedication and hiring good people I’ve managed to put myself in a position again where I’m very proud of what we’ve done. I’m able to answer the bell as a driver; I’m just going to live in the moment. This win means so much to me.”

Pedregon leads Wilkerson by 12 points and runner-up Hight by 39 with one final event left to go.