Please make no mistake; Bob Tasca is doing some housekeeping before his big coming-out party. 

And as Tasca sees it, everyone is invited. Tasca sent out his preliminary invitations during Friday's lone qualifying session at the Lucas NHRA Nationals at Brainerd, Minn.

Tasca jumped out to the provisional lead in Funny Car qualifying with a 3.941, 326.63 performance with his Ford Motorcraft-backed Mustang. 

"The guys have been trying some different things and getting our chips in order for the Countdown run," Tasca said. "It felt good. I left the trailer, and Mike [Neff, crew chief] looked at me with a smirk on his face and went, 'Now that is what I've been looking for." 

"So he's been hunting for something in the tune-up, which obviously he was pretty happy with that last run. He went, 'Now we got to do it again". That's really what this thing comes down to is consistency. That's really what wins races. The quickest car doesn't always do it. It's the car that can go down the track with consistently fast and quick runs. That's the car that wins the race."

Admittedly, Tasca and his team lost a measure of consistency during the Countdown. Blame it on a measure of testing, when the playoff berth was all but clinched leaving Pomona, that set the stage for a performance like Tasca and his team pulled off in Brainerd. 

"Mike and Jon have been looking for it, and we made a big change coming into this race in our setup, and it did exactly what they hoped it would do," Tasca explained. "I feel like I just won the race, and we haven't gotten out of qualifying yet. We got a couple more runs tomorrow. We'll see if we can repeat. That will be critical to put ourselves in a great position on Sunday to win this race and get back up into the points lead."

Right now, there is a logjam at the top of the Funny Car point standings. Just a little over three rounds separate the top six point earners, with Tasca just three rounds out of first place. He earned three bonus points for Friday's performance. Only one driver picked up a bonus point who ranked ahead of him in the standings. 

Tasca said crew chief Neff has been on a tireless mission for consistency regardless of which pitch Mother Nature tries to throw out of the clouds. 

"When you look at clutch and engine and timing and fuel, and to be more consistent," Tasca explained. "We tried some things that didn't work [over the last few races]. Unfortunately, most of what you try doesn't work. We came in here with a pretty aggressive change to our setup, and it worked. Now the proof will be, can it work tomorrow, and Sunday, and at Indy? You got to get some consistency. 

"We ran a package that we have not run this season, matter-of-fact we haven't run it the last couple of seasons, this exact package, and it did everything that we had hoped it would do. That's what these guys do. They're never satisfied; they're always looking to improve. Hopefully, what we've kind of stumbled on can continue. That's the goal. 

"The goal is to make sure you can repeat. You got to be able to repeat time and time and time again. That's what we haven't been able to do the last couple of races. But I think we're really happy with what we discovered this last run." 

It wasn't like anyone could be a tuner in the conditions the Funny Cars ran in. When the session began, the air temperature was 87 degrees with an adjusted altitude of 4,178 feet and a racing surface pulling 110 degrees on the heat gun. 

Tasca was smiling big for a reason. He was .02 quicker than No. 2 qualifier Alexis DeJoria and No. 3 John Force. 

"This is very gratifying, because even though it's going to cool down this season, these conditions, you can see in Indy, you can see in Maple Grove, and then obviously you're going to be able to run 80s going into the Countdown," Tasca said. "This is cool because it made a great run in the heat, challenging conditions, low ET by a considerable amount, and now we'll go into like mineshaft conditions tomorrow, which will be kind of a prelude to what we'll also see towards the end of the season. 

"I think the cars that really step up Saturday in those conditions are going to be the cars to watch come late into the Countdown when you get into Dallas and Vegas and Pomona, where conditions can be this good. It's going to be an exciting weekend. It's a great way to start the weekend and I can't wait to get out here and see if we can run in the 3.80s again because I think that's what it's going to take to be at the top of the page."