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After snapping a six-year winless streak, David Grubnic was looking forward to a sip — OK maybe a gulp — of champagne after winning the Top Fuel championship Sunday in the NHRA Dollar General Summernationals at Heartland Park Topeka.

“Obviously it’s been a long time between drinks,” the Brisbane, Australia native said after beating 2011 HPT winner Spencer Massey in the finals. “My last win was in Gainesville (Fla.) in 2006 and that’s not from not trying, trust me. Kalitta Motorsports and Conrad (Kalitta, his owner and crew chief) and everybody there, they’re all hard-core racers.

“We’ve had our ups and downs. My whole career’s been that way with ups and downs, but sometimes you’ve got to go through these troughs to appreciate the peaks and today’s one of those peaks, obviously.”

Sunday’s victory was Grubnic’s third career Top Fuel victory and his second at Heartland Park, where he scored his first win in 2005.

“Why we have good success here is beyond me, but honestly, I really don’t care. I’ll just take it.

“It’s great to win here again, but really this whole win is about my guys, my crew and Conrad. I really owe them a lot.”

Grubnic qualified seventh for Sunday’s 16-car eliminations and dispatched Bob Vandergriff, Steve Torrence and Brandon Bernstein to reach the finals.

Grubnic was an opportunist all day, clocking the slowest time among the Top Fuel winners in three straight rounds and got a virtual bye into the final round when Brandon Bernstein’s dragster developed a leak at the starting line and he was unable to run the semifinals.

Grubnic clocked a time of 3.893 seconds at 319.07 mph in the finals, while Massey, who has three wins this season, ran a 3.910 at 309.98 mph.

“To have conditions change as they did during the day and for Conrad to come back and beat one of the top running cars is an outstanding achievement,” the 49-year-old Grubnic said. “All the credit goes to him and all my guys.

“This win’s not about me. It’s a whole group of people, and I’m just up here trying to represent them. It’s a fantastic day.”

Despite his loss in the finals, Massey took over the Top Fuel points lead, moving past seven-time world champion Tony Schumacher. Massey has a 12-point lead ahead of Schumacher, who lost in the second round to Massey.

Grubnic moved to eighth in points.

Antron Brown, who was the No. 1 qualifier for the Summernationals, was eliminated in the second round when he red-lighted against Doug Kalitta.

Kalitta then lost to Massey in the semifinals.

Rick Peterson can be reached at (785) 295-1129 or rick.peterson@cjonline.com or on Twitter @peterson_rick