In the sport of drag racing, few categories come tougher than NHRA’s 8.90 Super Comp division, and racers don’t get much tougher than multi-time division and national champion Gary Stinnett. Running in the Division 5 Lucas Oil Series, the Emporia, Kansas native started off the season behind the eight ball as other division runners got an early start in the points, but semi-final finishes at Brainerd and Las Vegas and a win in Topeka vaulted him right into the thick of the points chase.

Late in the summer, Stinnett drove his K&N filters-clad dragster to a win at the national event in Brainerd and the aforementioned win at Topeka that he feels was the turning point in his season toward a legitimate shot at the national title.

“I broke a roller lifter in the semi-final and I heard it when I started it up at the top end to drive back to the pits,” he reflected. “I hurried to try and change it, but it was stuck and I couldn’t get it out. So I was going to have to run one of my customers in the final and I was going to give up and just let him win it. Until I thought, you know that one round could make the difference in the points. I didn’t know when or what, but it could.”

“When I went to the Vegas divisional, I knew I had to go six rounds to go past Luke [Bogacki],” explained Stinnett. “I remember when I won the fifth round, everyone started coming over and congratulating me. I told them that I hadn’t won it [national championship] yet since I knew I needed to win the six round to clinch it. Well, I lost the sixth round so then I go to Pomona and I have got to sweat out [Edmond] Richardson.”

In order to clinch the championship at Pomona, Stinnett would have to be the last man standing amongst the contenders on race day, and that came to fruition before the end of the first round, as Richardson fell to Jimmy Lintz in the opening stanza. Gary Stinnett was now a three-time Super Comp national champion – arguably the toughest crown to win in drag racing once, much less three times.

You know in a way, to be honest I feel like I kind of snuck in and stole one away because 630 points shouldn’t win the championship,” he admitted. “It sure doesn’t feel like it did in ’05 when I had 700 points. I kinda feel like I got lucky and got this one by default.”

“But, it kinda makes up for the one in 2003 after I had led the points all season and [Jack] Beckman snuck in there at the end and got around me”, he added.

“I really want to thank Steve Williams and everyone at K&N for all their help,” noted Stinnett of his long-term relationship with the company. “The thing I really like about K&N is that Steve, Bob Harris and Greg Boute, they are all racers. They are at the track and they are in our categories, so they know exactly what we are doing and they are not just participants, they are contenders. Steve, for example, could win a championship in any given year.”

“Working with K&N is very different than many of the other companies that I deal with, just because of their involvement in our sport,” he added. “That means a lot to me and other racers.”