Courtney Force admits her emotions overshadowed her ability to maintain her composure.

The Advance Auto Parts-sponsored driver has been a machine of sorts; for 130 consecutive races since she stepped into fuel Funny Car racing. This season was especially impressive; in 12 races she'd qualified No. 1 five times and no lower than fourth.

Force experienced the thrill of victory and agony of defeat on more occasions than she can keep track of; on Sunday, that is. Two weekends ago, on Saturday afternoon at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, the youngest of John Force's Next Generation entered uncharted waters. She DNQ'd.

"When you get out of the car, obviously your adrenaline’s through the roof, and my emotions were at a high because I knew that we didn’t make a run that was good enough to get in the field," Force explained.  "I pedaled it on that last run hoping for the best, but when it spins that early, it’s going to be pretty much impossible to try to get any kind of decent number on the board."

Force had a little over a quarter-mile for the emotions to build up inside of her helmet.

"It’s frustrating because I think that we’re such a great team and have such a great race car," Force said. "I think it was just a little disappointing, the feeling that I know we are better than that. I think that was the biggest thing. I think that was just kind of a gut ache Saturday night (and) to just have to sit there on Sunday and watch everyone else go rounds and collect points and go around you and you couldn’t really do anything to stop them."

Force learned, no matter how top notch your team might be, qualifying should never be a foregone conclusion.

"I think a lot of people take it for granted," Force admitted. "Maybe that’s kind of what bit us. We thought, ‘Well, we still have another round. We’ll get it down there."

"You know you kind of feel good about it. You think your car is going to perform and it’s going to get down there, it’s going to get better. You try to pedal it on the last run to make up for it, but we just weren’t there, and we didn’t hit it, and it’s our own fault, and we know that.  I think we expected to be qualified. We didn’t really think we’d be in that sort of position, but we put ourselves there, and that’s something that we can’t do anymore."

Force believes the miscues ignited a sense of urgency to put her Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car in the field early in the NHRA Route 66 Nationals qualifying.

"I think we actually had that going most of the season," Force said. "I think Q2 was always our straight to the top qualifying run. And I always get a little bit nervous when we’re not in the Top 12 (after Friday)."

Being the child of the most successful Funny Car drag racer in NHRA history, Force knew her dad was going to offer sage words of advice, whether or not she was in the mood to accept it.

"My Dad obviously was, ‘You’ve just got to put it behind you. I’ve had DNQ’s plenty of times in my career," Force recalled. "And the fact that that was my first one ever in Funny Car, he told me not to be so hard on myself."

Easier said than done, considering many drivers are their toughest critic.

The competitive streak embedded within Force's heart allowed her a minimal moment to get emotional, much to her chagrin, on television. As soon as she was able to "suck up" the moment, she returned to the trailer to confer with her tuners.

“I needed to get back to the trailer, to look at the run and study it," Force said. "I needed to talk with my team and my crew chiefs. We needed to figure out what went wrong so this doesn’t happen again’.  I was a little embarrassed that my emotions were shown that much. But at the same time, can’t help it, it’s real, and it was a part of me that was shown. I don’t regret it. I love this sport."

Force took her first Sunday off in stride.

"I came out to the track, and I headed out to the ropes as much as I could," Force said. "A lot of fans were tweeting me that some of them cried when they realized I wasn’t qualified and they were coming to watch me race. I didn’t want to let them down. Just because I wasn’t qualified didn’t mean that I wasn't going to be out there. I still want the fans to have the full experience even if I’m not in the field."

Force admits she's better for the experience, but was in no mood to experience it again as qualifying at Route 66 started. She drove her way to the third quickest run in Friday's qualifying with a 3.88 elapsed time at 331.86 miles per hour. The run held for the duation of qualifying.

And, she quickly learned, two weeks and two qualifying runs, wounds can heal, even if the memories are fresh.

"You know, that’s how it goes, that’s how this sport is, there’s a lot of ups and downs, and you just have to learn from it and move on," stated Force.