MADISON, Ill. - Melanie Troxel won her first Top Fuel race of the season Sunday at the O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals, beating veteran Cory McClenathan in the finals to become the second woman to ever win at Gateway International Raceway.

Troxel had a run of 4.741 seconds in the finals to best McClenathan's 5.355.

Ron Capps extended his lead in the Funny Car points to 121 with his third victory of the year, this one over Del Worsham.

Dave Connolly topped teammate Jeg Coughlin by .016 seconds to move into second place overall in Pro Stock, and Matt Smith used a national record elapsed time of 6.901 seconds to earn the Pro stock Motorcycle championship over three-time Gateway International Raceway winner Angelle Sampey.

This was the first victory for Troxel's new team, which came together in the offseason under the guidance of Evan Knoll. It was also the first for the popular pro in more than a year, as she last visited the trophy stand in Las Vegas in April of last year.

"We knew it would take a little time to get a new team together and get to a point where we were running well," Troxel said. "It's certainly took us a few races and even when we started running a little better we didn't get any breaks. Today we weren't the best car and we definitely got little breaks here and there along the way so it was nice to see things fall our way."

Capps looked exhausted when he climbed out of his Dodge Charger R/T after dispatching Worsham in the trophy round. His 4.882 at a top speed of 305.98 mph was just enough to beat Worsham's 4.918 at 308.50 mph, and his 25th career win obviously took a lot out of him.

Connolly caught and passed Coughlin to win the Pro Stock crown with a 6.663 at 206.99 mph in a Chevrolet Cobalt. Coughlin ran a 6.695 at 206.64 mph.

Smith's third Pro Stock Motorcycle final of the year was also the third time he raced a female competitor for the race title. This time he got the win, with a 6.901 at a top speed of 191.78 mph on his Buell V-Twin. Sampey slowed well before the finish line and coasted through with a 7.132 at 162.67 mph on her Suzuki.