“Big” Jim Dunn, a five decades drag racing veteran, who is known to be tough and an unlikely candidate to wear his emotions on his sleeve, actually opened up a little bit on Saturday at the NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis.

Big Jim actually smiled.

Then when he thought no one was looking, he smiled again.

“Big” Jim Dunn, a five decades drag racing veteran, who is known to be tough and an unlikely candidate to wear his emotions on his sleeve, actually opened up a little bit on Saturday at the NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis.

Big Jim actually smiled.

Then when he thought no one was looking, he smiled again.

For the first time in his short NHRA Funny Car driving career, Dunn’s driver Paul Lee, will start Sunday’s eliminations from the top half of the field.

Dunn tuned Lee to the No. 6 qualifying position at the NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis with a 4.250 elapsed time at 292.39 miles per hour.

“We were in the top four for the last two runs and didn’t hurt any parts,” beamed Dunn, as he assembled his pistons for Sunday’s eliminations. “That’s about as good as you can wish for.”

Dunn’s team sat out the final session, intent on preparing for Sunday’s final eliminations and double-checking all of the details.

“We’ll get some money back tomorrow for running so bad this season,” Dunn continued. “We can count on about $10,000 tomorrow [standard qualifying money] and when you’re on a budget you do what you have to do.”

Lee will race Tim Wilkerson, another racer who has remained competitive while showing a penchant for stretching his dollars.

“Everything ran well this weekend, the car was a little rich,” Dunn explained. “The first run, we leaned it and went a little further. We’ll lean it a little more and go a little further tomorrow. She should run a 4.20 tomorrow and that should be good if the weather doesn’t change a lot.”

Dunn went back to work immediately, but for a brief moment, cracked a third smile.