DINWIDDIE, Va. — It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t easy, but it was just what the doctor ordered for Dave Connolly.
Needing a victory Sunday to stay alive in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship points race, the Elyrian overcame a blown engine to win the Virginia Nationals Pro Stock championship for the second consecutive year at Virginia Motorsports Park.
And to make the accomplishment even more special, the final round win came against reigning series titleholder and current points leader Jeg Coughlin, who is also Connolly’s Cagnazzi Racing teammate.
The victory moved Connolly, driving a special red and white Lucas Oil/Charter Communications Chevy Cobalt, from sixth to third in NHRA POWERade Countdown points. His 2,397 total leaves him trailing second-place Kurt Johnson by three and Coughlin by 77 with two races remaining.
Not only did Connolly, 25, have to defeat tough competitors Greg Stanfield, Johnson and Greg Anderson to get to Coughlin, but his team had to change a motor after the first round.
“When I came to the track today I knew it was going to be a tough first round,” Connolly said.
“We beat (Stanfield) by a one-thousandth (of a second) at Memphis two weeks ago and it was tight again. It was a good win for us and it was the tightest run we had.”
The nose of Connolly’s car was just inches ahead of Stanfield at the finish line when the engine broke. The winning margin was minuscule — 6.583 seconds at 208.59 mph to 6.597 at 208.94 mph. Stanfield left first with an .022-second reaction time to Connolly’s .036.
“From the time we pulled into the pits and knew the engine was broken to the time we fired it up, it was 24 minutes,” Connolly said. “Everybody was cooking and we felt like a Top Fuel team. That was pretty incredible.”
That performance, he noted, may have contributed to his .001-second reaction time against Johnson’s .047 in the quarterfinals.
“When your guys are working that hard for you, you definitely want to make sure you’re on your ‘A’ game,” Connolly said, “and it panned out for us.”
Connolly hit the finish line in 6.588 seconds to Johnson’s quicker 6.567 —  a winning margin of seven-thousandths.
“In my opinion, every round, it didn’t matter if it was in the first or the finals, it was a championship driver pulling up next to me,” Connolly said. “Other than Kurt, and honestly, he’s deserved to win championships, they’ve all been world champions. That just means they know how to win, and we were just fortunate enough to turn on the win light.”
Connolly’s easiest decision came in the semifinals when Anderson fouled out.
“You’ve got to have a little luck in this class, and we definitely had a little bit with us today,” Connolly said.
The win was the fourth in Connolly’s abbreviated 18-race season. After sponsor woes sidelined him for the first five races, Connolly advanced to eight final rounds during the season. He was sixth in points at the end of the regular season.
Races remain at Las Vegas (Oct. 31-Nov. 2) and Pomona, Calif., (Nov. 13-16).
In other action Sunday, Cruz Pedregon won Funny Car and  Tony Schumacher chalked up Top Fuel win No. 14 of the season and No. 88 of his career.
Pedregon, the 1992 POWERade Series world champ, beat points leader Tim Wilkerson in the semifinals and second-place Jack Beckman in the final. Pedregon ran a 4.113 at 296.44 to Beckman’s 7.503 at 88.14 en route to his first win in more than two years.
Pedregon climbed from sixth to third place in Countdown points, passing Ashley Force, Robert Hight and Tony Pedregon. He sits within 69 points of Wilkerson after entering the weekend
115 points out of first.
“We’re in the hunt,” Pedregon said. “We just need to do our thing and then have to hope that Wilkerson goes out (early).”
Schumacher’s 3.811 at 316.08 was just good enough to get around Hillary Will’s 3.847 at 307.09.
Schumacher’s 14th trip to the winner’s circle this season and 55th of his career pulled him within arm’s length of Greg Anderson’s NHRA record for round wins (76) and race wins (15). With two races left, Schumacher is at 71 round wins and 14 race wins.

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