Funny Car driver Robert Hight has been down in bottom-feeder territory before, but he has a knack for never staying there for long.

The Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang driver shrugged off his 6.509-second, 100.75-mph pass in Friday's opening qualifying session for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals that left him 17th – dead last in the order.

Funny Car driver Robert Hight has been down in bottom-feeder territory before, but he has a knack for never staying there for long.

The Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang driver shrugged off his 6.509-second, 100.75-mph pass in Friday's opening qualifying session for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals that left him 17th – dead last in the order.

He rebounded in his second chance to post a 4.085-second elapsed time at 313.29 mph on the 1,000-foot course at Minnesota's Brainerd International Raceway to take the provisional No. 1 spot and record the day's fastest speed for satisfying measure.

And with a chance of rain Saturday interfering with one or more of the scheduled two final qualifying sessions at 1 and 3:30 p.m. (local time), Hight said he wanted to make sure he turned in the best run he could Friday.

"There's some extra pressure. We need to get in today. We don’t need to be messing around and have rain get us tomorrow," he said. "I'm not even sure that will happen. Hope it doesn’t. But when there's a possibility, you've got to make sure it goes."

It "went," all right, this Mustang that has kept him in the points lead for the past 13 races.

It went right where crew chief Mike Neff planned for it to go – straight down the racetrack and at a 4.08-second clocking.

Hight said he was peeking over Neff's shoulder at the computer before the second run Friday and saw that the tuner-turned-driver/tuner-turned-tuner-again was eyeballing a 4.08 run. That's the run from last month at Sonoma that he was studying on the screen. Hight suggested it was almost as if Neff could will the Mustang to go as quick as he wanted it to go.

"It shows he has a good handle on this car," Hight said, "and that he can make it do what he wants." He said he was amazed Neff could duplicate that number from the mid-Western Swing, considering that "this is totally different air than what we had in Sonoma. We've got some humidity. It's hotter. So I'm pretty impressed with that run and how we ended up. It's pretty awesome, given that we messed up the first run, to be able to come out and run 4.08."

But he said he had no delusions that his E.T. would hold up as low for the day and possibly stake him to a claim of his second top-qualifying spot this season, the 47th of his career, and his first at Brainerd.

"Not a chance," Hight said.

"It's a good thing somebody didn’t want to place a bet against me, because I went back and told Neff that I believe that's going to be top half [no better than simply in the top half of the order]. I really figured everybody would step up. It was cooling down."

He was in the first pairing, and he knew that Bob Bode's explosion would cost about 10-15 minutes of clean-up time – meaning other top-performing teams would benefit from the falling temperature.

"At that time of day, that temperature is just dropping. And that's what you need to run good out here," he said.    

Hight said he was trying to do nothing more than keep his car in the groove on that second pass of the day.

"When you’re not qualified, you’re not as amped up. You’re making sure that you drive that car right down the middle of your lane and do the best you can and give your team the best opportunity for a good run," he said. "There's only a certain amount of area that has good traction. So that was my focus – keeping it right down the middle. We did that. It was an unbelievable run."

He said a wild swing like the one experienced Friday was not uncommon but added, "It can got the other way. You can be No. 1 and not even be in the field the second session when it cools off. It can swing and get you both ways."

Hight is highly unlikely to have his status in the 16-car field challenged this weekend. But Tim Wilkerson and Jack Beckman continue to add drama to the qualifying process this weekend. Both are vying for the class' 10th and final slot in the Countdown to the Championship order. The title-eligible field will be set at the close of the next race, the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis during Labor Day weekend.

Following the first qualifying session Friday, Wilkerson had gained two points and had a seven-point edge over Beckman. It didn’t help Beckman that his Valvoline Dodge oiled the track and cost him five points. In the evening session, Beckman (who still owns the track E.T. record at 4.018 seconds from August 2012) improved and settled for the tentative No. 8 spot – one ahead of Wilkerson overnight.

That does raise the possibility of them ending up eighth and ninth with a Round 1 meeting in Sunday's eliminations. How's that for the ultimate drama?

"Just go head-to-head and let the better car and driver win. That gets the drama out of the way pretty fast, if you ask me," Wilkerson said, "and we'd both be able to look at it like we have our own fate in our hands. But we'll see. You might be able to go out there and a run a 4.10 in the heat, and there may be a little better cloud cover tomorrow, so there's no way to know how it's going to shake out. Bottom line, though, is that it will shake out. Stay tuned, I guess."

Cruz Pedregon made a gigantic leap Friday from 12th to second so far. John Force will open Saturday qualifying in the No. 3 position. Hight, Pedregon, and Force were the only racers Friday to make it into the 4.0-second range.

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