After NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Eddie Krawiec won the 2014 U.S. Nationals, his favorite keepsake from the experience wasn’t the Wally statue, although having it among his awards certainly was gratifying.

What he cherished most was a photo that National Dragster’s Marc Gewertz snapped. It silhouetted Krawiec and young daughter Kayden, holding hands and walking down the same dragstrip on which he had defeated final-round opponent Jerry Savoie.

“In my heart, that’s my all-time favorite picture,” Krawiec said Monday after beating 2011 Indianapolis winner Hector Arana Jr. and handing him a second consecutive runner-up finish.

Krawiec, the Avon, Ind., resident (and one of three Hoosiers to make it to the winners circle) scored his second backyard victory at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis, his wife, Annemarie, wanted to recreate, to update, the photo..

“Kids, when they get older, before you know it they’re adults and don’t even want to hold your hand,” he said.

So they arranged for a new photo, this time with Annemarie in it.

“To be able to celebrate as a family is an awesome feeling,” he said.

What they had to celebrate was his march past Jim Underdahl, points leader L.E. Tonglet, two-time champion Matt Smith, and finally Arana Jr. The Vance & Hines Racing rider registered the biggest success yet for the brand-new Harley-Davidson Street Rod with his 6.858-second elapsed time ant nervous d 196.90-mph speed against Arana’s 6.886, 195.48. Moreover, Krawiec secured the No. 2 seeding for the Countdown to the Championship. The six-race playoff will begin in two weeks with the Carolina Nationals at zMax Dragway at Concord, N.C.

He said he had his “mojo” going throughout this longest event on the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

“I’ve had it all weekend long,” Krawiec said. “I had a good feeling. I had a great motorcycle. I wasn’t nervous one bit coming into Q1.”

Then when he and teammate Andrew Hines performed well right off the bat, Krawiec said, “It was like, ‘We’re back. These guys are all in trouble. We’re going to give ’em hell for the Countdown.’”

“We had a good motorcycle all weekend long,” he said. “We just needed to finesse it and get it better and better and better.”

According to Krawiec, their Harley-Davidson Street Rods are performing well, “but we’re still struggling a little bit early [in the run]. We’ll probably be making laps out here the next few days, trying to get stuff sorted out. We’re not where we need to be in the front numbers.”

What they ran Monday was strong enough to land Krawiec on the podium with Steve Torrence (Top Fuel), JR Todd (Funny Car), and Drew Skillman (Pro Stock).

Krawiec said he and Hines “knew coming here we had to get our act together.”

They did, and now they hardly can wait for the encore.