Mike Neff became the first driver in 38 years to qualify No. 1 in a pure Ford Funny Car when his Friday night time of 4.783 seconds in the Old Spice Mustang proved good enough to claim the top spot for Sunday’s eighth annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway.

Not since Danny Ongais started his Mickey Thompson Mach 1 Mustang from the top spot at the 1970 NHRA Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., had a pure Ford (Ford engine and Ford body style) led Funny Car qualifying. The next step for the 41-year-old rookie driver will be to get a win in the red-and-white Mustang powered by the BOSS 500 Ford nitro motor being developed jointly by Ford and John Force Racing, Inc.

Ongais was the last to win a Funny Car race in a pure Ford prevailing in the 1969 U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, Ind., in a Mustang powered by a SOHC (single overhead cam) 427 Ford engine. Mike Neff became the first driver in 38 years to qualify No. 1 in a pure Ford Funny Car when his Friday night time of 4.783 seconds in the Old Spice Mustang proved good enough to claim the top spot for Sunday’s eighth annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway.

Not since Danny Ongais started his Mickey Thompson Mach 1 Mustang from the top spot at the 1970 NHRA Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., had a pure Ford (Ford engine and Ford body style) led Funny Car qualifying. The next step for the 41-year-old rookie driver will be to get a win in the red-and-white Mustang powered by the BOSS 500 Ford nitro motor being developed jointly by Ford and John Force Racing, Inc.

Ongais was the last to win a Funny Car race in a pure Ford prevailing in the 1969 U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, Ind., in a Mustang powered by a SOHC (single overhead cam) 427 Ford engine.

“It’s an awesome feeling,” Neff said of earning his first No. 1 since trading in his wrenches for driving gloves. His Funny Cars started 13 races from No. 1 with drivers Scotty Cannon and Gary Scelzi. Scelzi won the 2005 POWERade championship with Neff as crew chief. “I knew after the first run today that it would be really difficult for anyone to run good enough to take it away from us.”

It was an emotional day for both Neff and crew chief John Medlen – and not just because of the performance of the BOSS 500. Medlen’s son, Eric, who in 2007 succumbed to injuries suffered in a testing accident in Florida, was the No. 1 qualifier at the 2005 and 2006 Thunder Valley Nationals and, at the end of Saturday’s racing, still was the track record holder at Bristol at 4.755 seconds.

For the second consecutive race, all four of the JFR Fords qualified in the top half of the field in an odd order – 1-3-5-7.