A week or two ago, Ashley Force Hood was perturbed, saying she and her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang team “for some reason . . . are just having a crappy year.”

But it’s looking happy, not crappy, right now at Brainerd International Raceway.

Already in the Countdown field with the No. 8 berth and a chance to leapfrog both No. 6 Tim Wilkerson and No. 7 Bob Tasca, Force Hood took the provisional top qualifying position Friday for the Lucas Oil Nationals.



A week or two ago, Ashley Force Hood was perturbed, saying she and her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang team “for some reason . . . are just having a crappy year.”

But it’s looking happy, not crappy, right now at Brainerd International Raceway.

Already in the Countdown field with the No. 8 berth and a chance to leapfrog both No. 6 Tim Wilkerson and No. 7 Bob Tasca, Force Hood took the provisional top qualifying position Friday for the Lucas Oil Nationals.

Her 4.102-second pass at 302.55 mph kept teammate Robert Hight at bay. He’s second in his Auto Club Mustang at 4.131 / 302.35 after the rain-shortened activity.

Cruz Pedregon, the 2008 Funny Car champion, who has struggled all season, is third after Friday qualifying at 4.139 / 285.89. And Jeff Arend, hoping to break into the Countdown field for the first time is pressuring 10th place Tony Pedregon, with his fourth in the order qualifying effort (4.165 / 289.63) with two more sessions scheduled for Saturday.

“I read that ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result,’ so I’ve been trying different things,” Force Hood said. “Some have worked and some haven’t, but I think I am making progress.”

Noting she was including her reaction times in the previous statement, she added the conditions on Friday meant not asking questions. Uncertain whether the weather would permit her and her class to make runs at all, she said she didn’t communicate with tuners Dean “Guido” Antonelli and Ron Douglas.

“There was really no time to talk about what was going to happen. I didn’t want to bug the crew chiefs and be asking, ‘What do you got in there?’ So I never really spoke to them,” she said. “So we went up and went right down there. Even my crew [said], ‘Man - we didn’t know they were going for a 10’ - especially your first run out, especially with a lost qualifying run ... you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow.

“My crew chiefs, Dean and Ron, like to keep us all in suspense,” she said with a smile. “I don’t need to know what’s going on in the tune-up. I just need to adapt to the car and do my best job to get it A to B.”

She said she never knew what the crew chiefs had in mind. All she was concerned about is what the track was giving all the racers.

“I had no idea. I was a little concerned. I couldn’t see the pairs ahead of me. It sounded like people were getting down the track,” Force Hood said. “You always got to be concerned if there is (adverse) weather tomorrow. You want a good A-to-B run, you risk maybe hurting the car pedaling it. It all depends on the people ahead of you. I was this close to asking that [but] I didn’t want to put a bad karma out there and ask that question: If it doesn’t get down [under full power] do you want me to pedal it? Or is everybody else running A to B?’ I decided to bite my tongue.

“Then Guido gave his nod and said, ’Piece o’ cake ’ - which he always does. And it’s never a piece of cake. But I’m glad I didn’t doubt them.”

Force Hood, the No. 1 qualifier at BIR two years ago, said, “It’s always good to have a strong first run out.  The team’s all pumped, really excited. We’re happy. We have a good feeling about this weekend. It’s all about that attitude. You definitely gain that confidence when you run - especially if you’re No. 1 - but even if you can just get a strong run in the first session.”

Force Hood, still seeking her first victory of the season, said she has spent too much time asking herself, “What else do we have to do?”

She said, “You do get down on yourself. We are just in the biggest slump we’ve ever been in.”

It appears she is breaking out of it -- just as Hight did about this time last season, when he leaped from an 11th-hour 10th place showing at the start of the Countdown to the championship.

“We’re in the Countdown,” Force Hood said, “and Robert showed last year that if you’re in it, you can win it.”

Part of her aggravation is a handful of close losses.

“[This year] everyone else has run just a little better than us,” she said. “Like at Charlotte (in the final round of the Four-Wide Nationals), we ran 4.04 and Dad ran 4.03. At Chicago (Joliet, Ill., the UA Route 66 Nationals), we ran 4.04 and Matt (Hagan) ran 4.02. We ran 4.32 at Norwalk and Tim (Wilkerson) ran 4.31. That’s just how it has gone.”
 
In the previous 16 races, Force Hood has been beaten by less than .085 of a second in 12 of them.
 
“It’s been frustrating,” she said. “The breaks that went our way last year are going the other way this year, but that’s just racing.

“I’m glad the skies cleared up,” Force Hood said. “You never want to leave for the day without giving the fans a show.”

She gave them a good one Friday.