Robert Hight has seen it all.

He has won championships. He has won races. He is the quickest and fastest man in Funny Car history. So when Hight considers any race a “dream” scenario, you know it is special.

That was just the case for Hight Sunday at the 10th annual NHRA Carolina Nationals as the former champion overcame a gauntlet of Countdown competitors en route to earning his third victory of the season and 40th of his career at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte.

“It was a perfect day. You can only dream of a day like this,” an elated Hight said. “This was probably one of the toughest race days I’ve ever had. All four rounds were Countdown competitors. It was a lot of hard work, but we got it done. We definitely earned this one.”

Hight bested four Countdown to the Championship competitors on Sunday after struggling to his lowest qualifying position in four months. He then capped the near-perfect day with a win over his John Force Racing teammate Courtney Force in the final.

Hight produced a better light and never trailed in knocking off the No. 1 qualifier with a 3.943-second pass at 328.86 mph behind the wheel of the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car. Force, in her first final since Epping in June, ran a 3.980 at 315.19 mph in the runner-up effort.

“In all honesty, you can’t lose in that situation. But I will tell you, it is the Countdown and I would have been bummed if we had not taken advantage of all of these cars going out early and not got the win,” Hight said. “I was amped up. I rolled in there pretty good, had a great light and I got the win. But I was nervous. We hadn’t been down that left lane all weekend, but Jimmy Prock said we will be just fine. And rarely is he wrong.”

Hight added wins over J.R. Todd, Tommy Johnson Jr. and Matt Hagan - drivers who have combined for six wins in 2017 - and had little trouble dispatching the trio. Hight set low elapsed time of the day in a round one win over Hagan with a 3.927-second pass at 326.95 mph in the heat of the day, followed by another great run against a tire-smoking Johnson. In the semifinal, Hight again escaped a close race - a 3.985 to a 3.999 - in a win over U.S. Nationals winner Todd.

Force had wins over Alexis DeJoria, John Force and Bob Gilbertson.

“We’ve actually had a pretty great racecar over these last 15 races in hot or cold conditions,” Hight said. “If you look at the races, we are low ET on race day and that was the case today. We didn’t have our best qualifying effort here, but we got it going on Sunday when it really counts.

“We had Matt Hagan first round. When you race Matt Hagan first round you better not go up there shy and I had the right guy for that - Jimmy Prock. We went up there with low ET of race day. Then you move on to Tommy Johnson, another Countdown car with multiple wins this year, and we got him. Then J.R. Todd who has been on a hot streak lately. It was an incredible day.”

Thanks to that impressive performance, Hight leaves Charlotte with a 44-point lead over Ron Capps with five races remaining in the Countdown.

“We got up to No. 2 during the regular season and today, once Capps lost, we took over the points lead and you have to capitalize on that,” Hight said. “Those guys, you know they are going to have some wins in this Countdown, but when they got out earlier, we had to take advantage of that and we did.

“We have been collecting a lot of those little bonus points along the way and I think that is what you are going to have to do in this Countdown. It is almost impossible to have six perfect races and if you have one bad one and you collect a lot of those little qualifying points that can make up for a bad race. We came in here and didn’t get a lot of those points, but we made up for it on Sunday.”

As the series shifts next to the northeast at Reading, a track known for its record-friendly conditions, Hight is excited to see what this team can do, not just in the hunt for a second championship, but in bettering his already impressive national records.

“I look forward to it because you know that elusive 340 mph run is out there. I know I can get it,” Hight said. “We’ve made the first part of the run and different parts of the second and if you put them together, it will run over 340. We just have to have the conditions.

“But while it would be cool to get that barrier, in all honesty, I think we might be better right now in the heat. That separates the cars a little bit. Either way, I am lucky to have (Prock) in my corner no matter where we go.”