The story of how Alex Laughlin collected his first career win in Pro Stock is one that will be remembered for years to come.

Because, quite frankly, it wasn’t supposed to happen yet.

Hastily throwing together a team midway through last season, Laughlin entered the 2016 season seeking, not just his first career win, but his first-ever round win when the teams unloaded at Pomona back in February. But not long after, that first round win came in race three in Gainesville. And then another. And then a number one qualifier in Denver. And then his first semifinal finish in Charlotte last week.

And then, finally, victory.

Laughlin raced past another surprise first-time winner in Aaron Strong, Vincent Nobile, Shane Gray and Bo Butner to earn his first career win in his first-ever final at the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals Sunday at Gateway Motorsports Park.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling. It’s not even real at this point,” an overwhelmed Laughlin said after defeating Butner in the final. “I was riding back on the golf cart with the trophy just thinking this has got to be a dream. This whole day has been a blur. I just tried to take it one round at a time.”

Facing Butner, another driver looking for his first-ever NHRA Pro Stock Wally, Laughlin blasted off the line with an impressive .009 reaction time and held that advantage all the way to the finish line, recording a 6.611-second pass at 208.68 mph in the Gas Monkey Garage Chevrolet Camaro. Butner, who was 0-for-5 coming into Sunday, kept his losing streak alive with a 6.637 at 209.26 mph.

“Coming up for the final I was a little bit nervous. But I took a couple of deep breaths and I told myself it is just like any other round,” Laughlin said. “I told myself I just have to go up there, do your deal, stage the car well, and as soon as I let the clutch out I knew that our crew chief put a really good, solid tune-up in the car.

“I have a different routine every time I stage. Sometimes I like to go in first, sometimes I like to go in second. This time, I was going to let Bo go in first. I sat there in neutral until I saw his bulb come on. I was going to sit there and let this thing burn to the ground if that’s what it took. When he finally lit his bulb, I lit mine, the light flashed and I let my foot off the clutch.

“Once I got it into third gear and it wasn’t shaking or moving around I knew we had made it. I plugged it into high gear, looked over and saw Bo wasn’t there, and thought that as long as I wasn’t red, we’ve got it. When I crossed the finish line and saw the win light, that is when I really started to get excited.”

But Laughlin did not have an easy road to his first final. He defeated another surprise first-time winner in Strong in round one and then took out Nobile in round two. In the semifinals, Laughlin faced teammate Shane Gray for a shot at the final and used an .017 reaction time to collect a hole-shot victory over the driver of the Valvoline/Nova Services Chevrolet with a 6.634 at 208.75 to Gray’s quicker and faster 6.623 at 209.10 mph.

“Unfortunately I had to race my teammate in the semifinals and I certainly would have rather taken out one of the other Countdown cars,” Laughlin said. “But at the end of the day, we came out to do our best regardless of who it is. We did what we had to do.”

Amazingly, Laughlin’s victory came by chance. After hurrying together a team midway through 2015, Laughlin had only nine career round wins entering this weekend’s race in St. Louis, having only made it out of the second round once in his career. In addition, Laughlin just missed out on the spot in the Countdown to the Championship just a few weeks earlier, leaving the team without this race on their calendar to finish the year.

“This race wasn’t originally on our schedule after not making the Countdown to save money for next year,” Laughlin said. “But at the end of the day, I only have maybe 150 laps in this car, so any seat time I will take. They kept saying I am the spoiler. These guys didn’t take it easy on me when I first came out here, so even though they are in the Countdown and I’m not, I’m certainly not going to take it easy on them.”

Pro Stock points leader Jason Line reached the semifinals Sunday in St. Louis, falling to Butner on a hole-shot. The performance keeps the driver of the Summit Racing Equipment Chevy firmly atop the standings, 63 points ahead of teammate Greg Anderson. Butner, off the strength of his fifth final of 2016, moved up one spot to third.

Despite missing the playoffs, Laughlin recognizes that his success to close out the year will only help his team in preparing for a Countdown campaign in 2017.

“I had these stepping stones of what I would like to accomplish throughout the year. First, it was win a round. Then, I would like to be No. 1 qualifier. Then, because of the timeline, I said I would like to make the Countdown,” Laughlin said. “Even though we missed the Countdown by two points, and I thought how everything is all messed up now, now we’ve got the race win. Now we will get the Countdown next year.”