By the time the NHRA Mello Yello  Drag Racing Series got to “the mountain” at Bristol, Tenn., Pro Stock racer Mike Edwards already was king of the hill.
 
Staying there will be the challenge.
 
Edwards drove his I Am Second/Interstate Batteries/Penhall/K&N Chevy Camaro to a 164-point lead in the standings over closest competitors Allen Johnson and Jeg Coughlin after 10 races. He won three times, at Charlotte, Atlanta, and Englishtown, N.J. He qualified No. 1 at nine of this season’s first 10 events.

Moreover, he had low elapsed time of the meet at each of the first 10, and in that span he ran top speed of the weekend at six consecutive events. He set the Pro Stock national E.T. record at 6.471 seconds in April at Charlotte.

Images courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

But the 2009 series champion (and 1981 champion of the now-defunct NHRA sportsman-level Modified series) can’t let his guard down. He said he has to be especially vigilant, with the tour in the midst of a stretch of races on four consecutive weekends and seven in eight weeks (including the punishing Western Swing).
 
“The Pro Stock class is as tough as it comes,” Edwards said. “Look at the final last year [at Bristol] that I won by less than 10-thousandths of a second. The competitors are some of the best in the business. You don’t just have a couple of teams fighting it out — there are several guys and gals gunning for you.”
 
Even in the preseason, Edwards said, “The 2013 campaign might be the most competitive in years. I can count at minimum 10 cars that have a legitimate shot at making a run for the championship.
 
“You have the defending Pro Stock champion Allen Johnson, who is only going to get better, and in his stable he has one of the best young drivers in Vincent Nobile and added a multi-time champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. to his program. Then you have Greg Anderson and Jason Line, who are always near the top. At the end of last season and throughout the winter one of the strongest teams has been V. Gaines. Then you add Erica Enders, the [Rodger] Brogdon camp, Shane Gray, Warren and Kurt Johnson, Greg Stanfield, and Larry Morgan, along with those that don’t quite have the funding to run the entire tour, but have good power. It is going to be scary,” he said.

“We are excited about the way our I Am Second/Interstate Batteries/Penhall/K&N Camaro has performed to this point in the 2013 season,” he said. “You’ve almost got to pinch yourself sometimes, how good we are running. It’s nerve-wracking, just to go to the next race, wondering, ‘How long can this keep going?’ “
 
The quick start has startled Edwards, although it has surprised few others.
 
“We kind of started with a new deal, a couple of new people,” he said, “and we were just going to do our best. And man, The Lord’s blessing us and showing us a lot of favor. It’s been a phenomenal year.”
 
At Englishtown, he became the first three-time Pro Stock winner in 2013 — a feat that’s particularly remarkable, considering the quality of competition.

 
“I didn’t think it would happen to me, that’s for sure,” Edwards said. “This is a great start, the greatest start I’ve ever had since I’ve been racing.”
 
Indeed, it has been a contrast from last year, when Edwards said that too often he shut off the engine early.
 
“We want to make a quality run down the quarter-mile every time we pull to the line. Last year that was our biggest enemy, that we had problems arise that forced us to abort too many runs,” he said.

 These days he has the reassurance that the team and car are far more in synch than before when they’re at the starting line and need to tweak settings based on conditions.
 
“We pretty much have a handle on what we think we need to do,” he said.
 
However, Edwards has little time to enjoy his achievements.
 
“I know how quick this sport can bring you to your knees,” he said. “We must keep trying new things to go faster. The competition is not just sitting at home. They are working hard, too.”

All teams will be laboring hard during this demanding stretch that will end Aug. 4 at Seattle, only to signal a long trip to the woods of Minnesota, at Brainerd, then on to the prestigious U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis and blast into the intense six-race Countdown to the Championship.
 
“We are not like NASCAR and have a full-staff facility getting ready for the next event,” Edwards said of his own Coweta, Okla.-headquartered team. “We have a small group of guys, who each weekend are hands-on with many facets of the team. The engine shop will put in extra hours to make sure we have a big enough arsenal of engines ready for the grind.
 
“When you have that many races in a row, getting to the hot part of the year, we hope we’ve got all of our pieces in order,” he said. “It is going to be challenging. There’s no time for testing. Hopefully we’re up for the task. I think we are.”

 
Curiously, Edwards said the success he has enjoyed early in this season is not because of his own contributions.
 
“The car’s really good. The team’s really good. The Lord’s just showing us a lot of favor. I haven’t done my part, as far as driving it. I really feel like the car can’t lose. We’ve been losing because of me.”
 
He led the field for four races before he could parlay the No. 1 starting spot into a victory, and that bugged him. Those who understand Edwards could see that, but many might have been surprised to hear him say at Englishtown, “I hope I can get better somehow.”
 
That couldn’t have been a worse notion for the rest of the Pro Stock field.
 
But Edwards has had his share of sad and frightening news this year, too. The deadly storms that spawned tornadoes in America’s heartland — his home — following the Topeka race wreaked havoc. They devastated his home state, and a twister touched down about a quarter-mile from his home and shop while the team was at Englishtown. All that has weighed on his mind this spring.

“We’ve tried to get through it the best way we can,” Edwards said, adding that his prayers have been with family and all Oklahomans as they have experienced “a lot of disaster.” During the height of the scares, he said, “We want to be there with them. We’re just going to pray, and hopefully The Lord watches over everybody there and nobody gets hurt.”
 
Edwards’s faith is his most satisfying possession, more than his accumulation of 37 Pro Stock Wally statues. But it’s actually not a possession, his faith in Jesus Christ — he wants to share it. And that’s what the “I Am Second” label on his car is all about.
 
“I Am Second” is a faith-based outreach program that Interstate Batteries Chairman Norm Miller co-founded, one that’s designed to help people discover their true purposes in life as they put God and others before themselves. The program is Edwards’ primary sponsor for nine events this year (while Interstate Batteries gets top billing at 11 events and K&N Filters at four others).
 
Actors, athletes, musicians, business leaders, and everyday people have posted their stories on the program’s web site (www.iamsecond.com) as a testimony to God and to share useful insights about dealing with the typical struggles of everyday life.

 “With the addition of the I Am Second program, it fits to exactly what this team is about,” Edwards said. “When we first branched out on our own back in 2000, the whole purpose was to allow us to have a platform to benefit programs and ideas we believe in. That is why we have such a close relationship with Young Life, and now adding the I Am Second program, it allows us to have a huge impact away from the quarter-mile with those that need support.
 
“I cannot forget about the other great companies that stand behind our team — Penhall, K&N, and Contemporary Corvette — who also have the same belief in what we are doing as a team. Don’t get me wrong, winning on the quarter-mile is a huge point of this team every weekend we are at the track, but we also understand the lives we touch year round,” he said.
 
So for Edwards, his mission is more than racing. But he definitely wouldn’t mind being king of the hill when the schedule finishes at Pomona, Calif., in November.