If the Funny Car contingent is looking for someone to blame for the resurgence of Tim Wilkerson after the early loss in Charlotte, blame his wife.

She’s the one who got the 11-time winner all riled up headed into Dallas.

“I went home and I was a grouchy S.O.B.,” Wilkerson admitted with a smile. “You can ask my wife. She said ‘I hope we get to Dallas and do some good, I’m about to throw you out of the house.’ She’s going to be happy because now I’ll be smiling again.”

Wilkerson took the first round loss in Charlotte to Ashley Force extremely personal because in addition to being driver, he’s the crew chief. If the Funny Car contingent is looking for someone to blame for the resurgence of Tim Wilkerson after the early loss in Charlotte, blame his wife.

She’s the one who got the 11-time winner all riled up headed into Dallas.

“I went home and I was a grouchy S.O.B.,” Wilkerson admitted with a smile. “You can ask my wife. She said ‘I hope we get to Dallas and do some good, I’m about to throw you out of the house.’ She’s going to be happy because now I’ll be smiling again.”

Wilkerson took the first round loss in Charlotte to Ashley Force extremely personal because in addition to being driver, he’s the crew chief.

“I was very embarrassed of my performance last week at Charlotte.,“ Wilkerson said. “It just wasn’t conducive to our car. I told the guys that I let them down because I’m the crew chief, I’m the guy responsible for making that thing run and I thought I let them down big. So I told them when we get here, they are going to have to beat us. We’re going to be a fast car every round and we’re going to try and get back to the winner’s circle and we were lucky enough to do that.”

Make no bones about it; his road to the final wasn’t easy, especially when you consider he beat John Force in the semis and Tony Pedregon in the finals. Between those two drivers there are 16 world championships.

“To be a champion, you’ve got to beat the champions and that’s what we’ve came out to do this year,“ Wilkerson said. “We’re not going to back down from that goal. Charlotte was an embarrassment, we’re trying to beat everyone this year. I mean we only have an 11 point lead on Tony and if I’d have done any good at Charlotte we’d have been 60 or 70 points up, so that’s how bad that was. We’re dedicated to win this thing, believe it or not.”

Winning sure beats sleeping in the trailer, Wilkerson understands. 

“We’re not going to leave anything on the table,” Wilkerson continued. “I told them guys I ain’t leaving anything on the table like I did at Charlotte, so you might see some tire shake. But I’m not pussy-footing down the track anymore. I’m going to run as fast as the track will allow.”