The wait is over for Blake Alexander.

 After competing on a limited basis in the nitro Funny Car and Top Fuel ranks since 2011, Alexander was finally able to celebrate his first national event victory.

Behind the wheel of the Bob Vandergriff Jr.’s Top Fuel dragster, Alexander beat Terry McMillen Sunday in the finals of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.

Alexander clocked a 4.011-second elapsed time at 297.81 mph to edge McMillen’s 4.155-second lap.

“It felt really good, obviously,” Alexander said. “I got a little emotional because I’ve tried to do this my whole life and come close and lost sponsors and thought I was never going to drive the car again. I’ve basically gone through everything to climb back to the top. I was holding back tears which is not that cool I guess when you drive race cars 300 mph, but my path was a little bit different. It’s a scenic path that I enjoy thoroughly working trying to make things happen, so I can come out here. I have a great team owner who took a chance on me, Bob Vandergriff, and it felt good to reward him.”

In the rain-shortened qualifying of two sessions, Alexander clocked a 3.983-second elapsed time at 306.46 mph to qualify No. 12.

Then, he proceeded to oust world champions Antron Brown, Tony Schumacher and then Leah Pritchett before defeating McMillen.

“We were just trying to be ready throughout the qualifying sequences and also (Sunday) we were trying to improve on the mistakes that we made,” Alexander said. “We had to fix everything because we qualified 12th. I have a car before and lost and been in all different type of situations and didn’t capitalize so I was trying to make sure that we did that (Sunday). We never got ahead of ourselves, never thought about the next steps.”

On May 6, Alexander made it to the final round of the Southern Nationals near Atlanta before losing to Pritchett when he had a red-light start.

“I think when I was in the final in Atlanta I was picturing winning more than I was actually ready to take a hold of the opportunity and be the person who won the race,” he said.

This season, Alexander is competing on a limited schedule and Norwalk was only his fourth event out of 12 this season. Despite his small sample size of races this year he has had a lot of success. His season round record – after Sunday – is 10-3.

“I just think people call us an underdog all the time and if you compare us to a five-car team or whatever, I think we have a really great crew and it is opportunistic for us that we don’t run all the races,” Alexander said. “Some of the greatest crew guys in the United States decided to come work with us in their time away from their families and I really appreciate everything they do because without them none of this possible.”

Alexander did take a moment to discuss the new track surface at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.

“It is smooth,” Alexander said. “Down track the wind was blowing (Sunday) so that affected you a little bit, but other than that it was pristine. I don’t run all the races, so it took us a little while to adjust to the new track prep and take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves. We didn’t try to go over center and get aggressive on it. It paid dividends actually because we made fewer mistakes than people when we compete.”

Prior to making his Top Fuel dragster driving debut last season driving a dragster owned by Del Worsham, Alexander was driving in the nitro Funny Car ranks.

Alexander’s career-best performance in a nitro Funny Car is his runner-up finish at the 2013 spring race at Charlotte, N.C., when he lost to Matt Hagan in the finals.

Alexander made his first career nitro Funny Car start in 2011 at Reading, Pa. Alexander is in selective company in that he has won rounds in Top Fuel and Funny Car not something that many racers have done.