Eddie Krawiec’s emotion was obvious moments after winning the prestigious U.S. Nationals Sunday.

The Pro Stock Motorcycle star’s voice was cracking when talking about his win over his Vance & Hines teammate Angelle Sampey in the finals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis.

Krawiec clocked a 6.844-second elapsed time at 198.58 mph on his Buell to defeat Sampey’s 6.880-second lap at 195.51 mph on her Suzuki.

“I feel like I’m going to cry like a baby,” Krawiec said. “This means a lot to me.”

Krawiec, a four-time world champion in 2008, 2011-12 and 2017, had just one national event win since the 2019 season and that came in Houston in the COVID-19 abbreviated 2020 NHRA season.

Krawiec, who competes out of the powerhouse Vance & Hines stable, won his first NHRA national event on a Buell. Vance & Hines ran Harley-Davidson motorcycles the previous 20 years.

This was Krawiec’s 49th career national event win and his third at the U.S. Nationals. He also won Indy in 2014 and 2017.

Krawiec qualified No. 1 and then ousted Andrew Hines, Michael Phillips, who had a red-light start, Joey Gladstone and Sampey.

“It was a little bit of luck, it was being good, and it was just hopefully things fall your way,” Krawiec said. “I came out with the No. 1 motorcycle right off the truck and was in good shape and got down the track and from there it kind of went all downhill. We had a pretty good first round and second round was my lucky round. The bike bogged and we were kind of off on the set-up. We’re trying to learn all the changes that we made. Coming here we didn’t have the opportunity to test. We just kind of came here cold turkey. We made a bunch of changes straight off the dyno. Really, what we are trying to do is cater to the power to the way that our chassis needs it delivered. We kind of changed our engine combination up a little bit and then went to the final round.”

Krawiec acknowledged he wasn’t happy about his performance in the final round.
“I got the timeslip and was upset that I was like 47 (reaction time), you shouldn’t be 47 at Indy in the final,” Krawiec said. “I did a horrible job driving in the final but managed to get the win light and was just excited. An all-team Vance & Hines final, Mission Foods and everybody who supports us. We’re back. We’re back in the winner’s circle.”

Krawiec entered the U.S. Nationals eighth in the points standings. However, with this victory and the points being reset in the for six-race Countdown to the Championship, Krawiec moved up to fourth in the standings just 40 points behind leader and reigning world champion Matt Smith.

“I would say the best thing to say is we needed some time to implement our changes,” Krawiec said. “It gave us a month and the last break (between races), and we thought we would have plenty of time to go testing. We sent our truck here and actually brought our bikes here in the back of pick-up trucks because we didn’t have the time to get them in the back of the (hauler). When you think you have time, you don’t have time. There’s never enough time.

“We just wanted to try and play it safe and have time to go test and make laps and the test session at St. Louis was going to be awfully hot with spotty rain and we didn’t want to take the risk of going out there and not really having the opportunity to make any runs. We knew Angelle’s bike was going to be fast. We just had to work on it a little bit more. But the more important thing is trying to get into the Countdown and making sure you have that opportunity because if you’re not in the Countdown you don’t have that chance to race. The cool thing about Pro Stock Motorcycle is there are actually 11 guys who are going to race for the top 10 spots, and I think that’s an awesome deal. I know my outlook on the Countdown got a whole lot better.”

With the prior rounds as a barometer, Krawiec was an underdog against Sampey, but he stepped up his tuning.

“What I found is how far I was really off on my tune-up,” Krawiec said. “As the day progressed and got hotter and hotter and hotter, I started getting further away from center. So, I went back and looked at my data for the finals and kind of made the proper changes I thought were going to do it. We can’t leave well enough alone being tuners. We always seem like it is a great opportunity to go slower by tuning on it. That’s generally what you do because you have to learn.”

Krawiec said he and Andrew Hines about three weeks ago did a bunch of changes to the way they were running the Buell motorcycles.
“We have been struggling and what we have been doing in the past that we’ve done for the past 15 years has not worked since we switched to the new Buell body work,” Krawiec said. “Once we got the Buell bodywork straightened out, we needed to get the chassis straightened out and we haven’t got there yet, but we’re getting closer and we’re on to it now, especially with my motorcycle, but tune-up is even more critical. I think as we learn our tune-up with our engine combination it will get better and better.”

Racing against his friendly rival Sampey lost some of its luster this time because Sampey, who lives in the New Orleans, La., area, is dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

“For her this has been a whole stressful week,” Krawiec said. “I don’t even know if she had fun. She did at a certain level, but when you go through something devastating like the whole Hurricane (Ida) deal and the impact it has had on people down South and in Louisiana where it hit, I think (being here) is more of a relief. When you’re told you’re not going to have power for a month what are you going to do. She tried enjoying the race as much as she could, and I knew it meant a lot to her to get her. I’m glad I’m the one who beat her for the win because the win at least stayed in our camp.

“As a whole for us just to get both motorcycles in the final, one a Buell and one of our shop’s Suzukis that was something special. This is a true Vance & Hines win. I was never part of the team as a Vance & Hines only sponsor motorcycle. We have Mission Foods aboard as an associate and to do that for those guys, we’re one team. There’s a shop out in Indiana and there’s a shop out in California. The guys out in California make the exhaust and we (in Indiana) are the RDC, the race shop, that makes all the race parts for everybody out here, but we are one team, and it is just really cool to do that for everybody.”