“John Medlen and this Ford Drive One team game me a great race car and I feel like I blew it. No excuses. You have to fight through things like sweat and distractions on the starting line. I just feel terrible. I don’t want to take anything away from Bob Tasca III but I wish I could have given him more of a race especially for all the fans that waited out the weather and the track issues,” said a disappointed Neff.

John Force took the win with a 4.291/287.11 over Jeff Arend’s 4.395/260.41 in the quarterfinals.  (Debbie Gastelu photo)

John Force raced his way to the semi-finals and clinched a spot in the Countdown to 1 for the second consecutive year. The winningest driver in NHRA history will be in position to race for his unprecedented 15th Funny Car championship. He helped teammate Robert Hight by beating rookie Matt Hagan in the first round, effectively freezing the No. 11 funny car in points in front of his young driver.

After Force dispatched Hagan be took the win light over Jeff Arend before an uncharacteristic red-light in the semis versus Tasca ended his day. It was only the 21st red-light in Force’s career and the last time he red-lit was ironically in 2007 at Reading in the final versus former teammate Tony Pedregon.

Robert Hight was driving an Auto Club Ford Mustang tuned by Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly (above), and scored a big first round win over Jim Head closing the gap on Matt Hagan and Cruz Pedregon for the last spot in the Countdown to 1. Hight was upended in the second round by Tasca when his Mustang lost traction at half track ending his day.

“I am glad I picked up a round on the number ten position but honestly I wanted to get a lot more than that here. It is disappointing but I am excited to be headed back to Indy. I’ve been to the past three finals of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals and if I can repeat history I feel like I’ll be in a good position. John (Force) helped me out today beating (Matt) Hagan. I’ll get this Auto Club Mustang running the way it needs to because I have the best team behind me. I’ve got Jimmy Prock, Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly, and John Medlen all helping. They have a lot of championships and we are going to use their knowledge and make some things happen,” said Hight.

In one of the most bizarre turn of events in recent John Force Racing history Ashley Force Hood, the events No. 1 qualifier, outran Jeff Arend in the first round but when her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang was weighed it was below the minimum weight and Force Hood was disqualified.