Mike Neff didn't mind sitting through a three-hour rain delay. With each passing moment and each droplet of rain conditions improved. So much so, that by the time he made his run, the only Funny Car not to get down the track before the rain started, his publicist Elon Werner was confidently predicting a pole winning run during the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals.

When the board flashed with Neff's time and speed, Werner was a hero and Neff gave everyone still at Brainard Int'l Raceway at taste of what was to come.

“Today’s run went really well and worked to our advantage with that rain delay because the track was cooler than it was when everybody else ran,” Neff explained. “To run what we ran … could have probably been run by anyone else … but it worked out. It was a good solid run and it feels good to be number one.”

Mike Neff didn't mind sitting through a three-hour rain delay. With each passing moment and each droplet of rain conditions improved. So much so, that by the time he made his run, the only Funny Car not to get down the track before the rain started, his publicist Elon Werner was confidently predicting a pole winning run during the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals.

When the board flashed with Neff's time and speed, Werner was a hero and Neff gave everyone still at Brainard Int'l Raceway at taste of what was to come.

“Today’s run went really well and worked to our advantage with that rain delay because the track was cooler than it was when everybody else ran,” Neff explained. “To run what we ran … could have probably been run by anyone else … but it worked out. It was a good solid run and it feels good to be number one.”

Admittedly, the team made some minor changes before taking their lone run to end the third and what turned out to be, final Funny Car qualifying session.

“We had to make some adjustments for the track being cooler than what it was when we were up there previously. We were trying to be conservative and I believe you could have run quicker than a 4.12. The No. 1 qualifier was only a 4.16 and we wanted to make sure we went down the track. We were trying to run a 4.12 and that’s what it ran. We were real happy with that.”

Neff will go into Sunday's eliminations feeling both good and bad. He has confidence his car can go to the final round, but knowing teammate Robert Hight didn't make the 16-car field is a sobering thought. Hight is on the outside looking in in the race to make the Countdown to One and Neff is not above missing the cut himself. It's that tight.

“It absolutely does,” said Neff when asked if the adjustability of his car helped his confidence. “That’s what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to make adjustments to what you want it to do. When it repeats and you’re expecting it, that’s the name of the game and it makes it easier. It’s when the unexpected things you expect it to do doesn’t happen, and it does something else – that trips you up. It gives us a little bit of confidence to make us feel that we have a handle on it.”

Confidence fills one hand and pressure and concern the other.

“We all feel more pressure because we all know what is at stake and we all have a job to do. We all want to make sure we do our job. You don’t want to be the weak link. Yeah, I feel more pressure, especially when I know the car is running good and I don’t want to be the weak link. I think everyone knows that it is crunch time and we can’t afford any mistakes and we need to go rounds. It helps out with the confidence and that comes with the car running good.”

IN OR OUT, THE PRESSURE MOUNTS - “It’s definitely disappointing to see Robert not get in,” said Mike Neff during his pole winning interview. “In looking at the ladder, there’s a positive that [Matt] Hagan and Cruz [Pedregon] will be racing in the first round tomorrow. One of them will be out first round and that’s great news for Robert and us.”

The positive side of the Hagan/Pedregon match up is that at least one driver will not move up to far ahead of Hight.  

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