If anyone knows the value of every single point in a championship run, it’s Robert Hight. In 2009, Hight made the most improbable championship run, going from No. 10 in points to the top of the list by the end of the season. He did so by making every point count. 

Friday, at the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals in Maple Grove, Pa., Hight picked up three bonus points as he claimed the provisional No. 1 Funny car qualifying position, running 3.883 seconds at 330.39 miles per hour. 

Hight said the car responded to testing the team performed at Brainerd, Minn., in the days leading into the NHRA U.S. Nationals. 

“It was a good start,” Hight said. “We’ve actually been making a lot of .80 runs. Testing on Monday in Brainerd really got us back to where we need to be. Ran .88 in Indy. Didn’t do exactly the way we wanted first round. We were a hundredth off, lost lane choice, and that was the end of our weekend. 

“They’ve got a good handle on how to make this thing run. The trick is going to be tomorrow when it warms up a little bit, and then Sunday’s even going to be warmer. So that’s what’s gonna be the trick. But from here on out, every point counts and so far, we’ve got the most points, and we’ve just got to keep counting them up.”

This season, Hight begins his championship run from the No. 6 position. 

“Starting number six in the countdown is pretty low,” Hight said. “But we also have an extra race this year. Normally it’s six races, now it’s seven, and I feel you’re going to have to win at least three races if you want to be the champ. We need to start right here.”

Being aggressive is the rule of the weekend, from now until the season concludes in November out in Pomona, Ca. 

“We got to be aggressive,” Hight agreed. “There’s a lot of good cars. The five that are in front of us are really good cars, and there’s some behind us that are good. There’s no time to play defense; we’ve got to play offense and be aggressive but make good runs. My guys know how to do that. If we do what we know how to do, we can do this, but we got to put it all together, and we have a short period of time to do it.”

Headed into last weekend’s final regular-season race in Indianapolis, as many as six drivers were in contention for the top seeding in the points. This has been the status quo for the Funny Car division in 2021. The last five races have produced five different point leaders. 

“I don’t think it’s ever been closer or tighter,” Hight said. “Really good cars, and that’s why I say, number six, we’ve got our work cut out for us. There are five really good cars in front of us. To win from the number 10 spot like we did in 2009, I think that’s unheard of unless you just go in there and dominate and win a bunch of races, and that’s a pretty tall order with the class of Funny Car.”

Reading is Hight’s springboard towards gunning for a fourth championship, a title that would put him in elite company. 

“It’s going to put you in a in a league with Don Prudhomme, Kenny Bernstein,” Hight said. “Right now, I’m tied with Raymond Beadle. But that next step, it’s a big one. Kenny Bernstein, it’d be crazy. That’s what we look for. That’s what I want to do. I want to finish. No one’s going to ever beat 16 championships. That’s not even attainable. So, I want to be number two.”