TOP FUEL

In only his first year on the IHRA tour, Del Cox Jr. has quickly become a man of two faces. With every pass Cox looks more and more like the man he replaced last season, but at the same time he continues to separate himself from the pack. On Sunday, he showed the world both sides.

Cox equaled the mark set by 2008 Top Fuel World Champion Spencer Massey – the man he replaced last year – with his fourth victory of the year, but more importantly, his third consecutive victory put him in a league of his own as he takes over the Top Fuel points lead with just two races remaining.

With the win Cox (Downey, Calif.) leaps over Bruce Litton (Indianapolis, Ind.) and now holds a 24-point edge with only six rounds of competition left in the year.

“This is what we came here to do. Some people said a few things about my cocky comments after my last win, but you have to come in here with the mentality to win or else you are going to get beat,” Cox said. “It is nice to lead the points and hopefully we can keep it going and win this championship.”

Cox defeated Tim Boychuk (Edmonton, Alberta) on Sunday with a solid 4.715-second elapsed time at 315.42 miles per hour – his third consecutive pass of 310 miles per hour or more – to Boychuk’s 6.609 at 129.49 mph to pick up career win number four.

“This really is unbelievable. We knew going into the race against Tim it was going to be tough. They have been running really good lately, but I have the best crew and I have Paul Smith – enough said,” Cox said. “This group has been here plenty of times and they know how to do this.”

Cox also picked up wins over Bobby Lagana Jr. and Smax Smith to reach his fourth final of the year and was clearly on his game with laps consistently in the mid-four second range.