NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Aaron Strong, far lane, collected his first Pro Stock win by upsetting Vincent Nobile, who red-lighted in the final round of the rain-delayed Seattle event.

Former Comp driver Aaron Strong became the 62nd different winner in Pro Stock following one of the biggest upsets in the history of the class. Strong won the rain-delayed final of the Protect the Harvest NHRA Northwest Nationals presented by Lucas Oil from Seattle when heavily favored Vincent Nobile red-lighted by one-thousandth of a second. The race was completed during qualifying at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals.

“I can’t even believe it,” said Strong. “Pro Stock has been around for 40-plus years, and to be one of the very few like that, it’s unbelievable.

“With all my years of bracket racing, I did look at the scoreboard – even though I shouldn’t in a Pro Stock car –and saw my win light on. I was like, ‘Is my win light on or is that just the sun on it?’ but it was lit up."

Strong, who joined the Pro Stock class last season, was the No. 14 qualifier in the 15-car field on the original race weekend a month ago at Pacific Raceways. He benefited from extraordinary fortune in eliminations with wins against Greg Anderson, Erica Enders, and Bo Butner. Anderson lost when his transmission jumped out of gear, and Enders and Butner had to shut off when their cars got loose. Strong, whose Camaro is powered by an Elite Motorsports engine and tuned by four-time national champion Greg Stanfield, was still at least .05-second in arrears of Nobile when the final shifted to Indy, but his good fortune held up.

Nobile, who was the low qualifier in Seattle and Brainerd and is on the provisional pole this weekend in Indy, defeated Shane Gray and Jason Line to reach his 19th final round. He is now 9-10 in final rounds. 

“I’m surrounded by a lot of great people who have helped us,” said Strong, “people like A&J Furniture Manufacturing, Muffler, the Fab Shop, Federal Way Muffler, Fardig Development, and Dave Barcelon’s Truck Town."