But that might have made it even more rewarding than Jackson ’ s dominant and record-breaking run the previous year .

He worked through unprecedented times , an early-season crash , mid-season struggles and performed in a thrilling winner-take-all matchup , grabbing his second straight NHRA Pro Mod world championship . The spotlight came in the second-round race with Brandon Snider in Las Vegas , with the winner take the championship .

Jackson wanted nothing more than to defend his title , while Snider was seeking his first , and then put on a spectacular show , with Jackson ’ s

5.776 slipping past Snider and his 5.787 . Jackson went ahead and won the event for good measure , capping off an up-and-down season with a resounding and memorable finish .

“ When you have a season like this , there ’ s a lot of team owners that give up on you when you run as bad as we ’ ve been running ,” Jackson starts . “ You have people that doubt you , but our Bahrain 1 team was never not behind us . I did a decent job of driving today and this means a lot . The first one , I felt was easier , and this one , you had to earn it . That ’ s the ones that are the most special .”

The 2020 NHRA Pro Mod season didn ’ t start until July and Jackson struggled at the first two races , sitting ninth heading into the U . S . Nationals . But he won there and advanced to the final

round in Dallas to jump back into the points lead . A first-round loss in Houston put things in doubt , as Snider nearly took advantage .

Jackson , though , is as good as it gets when it comes to rising to the occasion and he did it again in Las Vegas , a track where he has consistently run well in recent years . He took care of business one more time and now has 11 career wins in just 43 races and back-to-back world titles .

“ When you are competing at this level and get to roll into the last race of the season with a chance to walk away with the title , it ’ s been a pretty good year ,” Jackson says . “ We hadn ’ t been running as well as we should , but I put all my chips onto the table in Vegas . It was definitely a shootout .”

– JOSH HACHAT DI

PHOTO : JOE MCHUGH