As they say, in professional competition, you need to put all distractions aside and focus on the task at hand.

But, in a sport as chaotic as drag racing, that is much easier said than done.

Coming into this weekend having suffered three consecutive first round defeats was enough of a distraction for Funny Car competitor Courtney Force, but a litany of issues on Friday only compounded that outside noise. So when Force came away from day one of the 30th annual NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway as the top qualifier, it was a welcome surprise - even to her.

“It was just a great run for us,” Force said. “We have had some distractions, but today was worth it. I don’t care if I have a million distractions, to get the car down there and get that track record on both ends felt amazing.

“We struggled a little these past few races and don’t think that is not in the back of our heads right now. We know that we are coming out here to change things and, most importantly, to go rounds on race day. It feels good right now, but we will see if it stays tomorrow.”

Force reset both ends of the track record in her Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car during the night session Friday in Houston, taking the top spot with a 3.851-second pass at 330.23 mph. If it holds it will be her 12th career top qualifier award and second in a row.

Ron Capps, the quickest driver in session one, slipped to second with a 3.884 at 326.56 mph, while John Force was third with a 3.890 at 325.53 mph. Cruz Pedregon (3.897) and Jack Beckman (3.931) round out the top five.

“Obviously we had prime conditions in Q2 and you saw a lot more cars get down the racetrack,” Force said. “But for our Advance Auto Parts team to skyrocket to the top spot and take that track record from my dad felt pretty good.”

But it wasn’t easy.

In round one, Force lost traction at the hit, only managing ninth on the charts. Then, just before session two, her father, John, only compounded the distraction issues with a chaotic scene in the staging lanes.

“Dad was extremely distracted right before the run. He wished me luck and right before we were getting ready to fire the motor, he just kind of looks in and has this panic face and starts running around the back of my car,” Force said. “He grabs one of my crew guys, but I still have no idea what was going on, what was going through his head. It immediately panicked me, but I got on my radio with my guys and said ‘tell him to hang on if he is still back there because I am going.’ On top of that, I did my burnout and I had static in my radio the entire run, so that was a distraction.”

Despite the complications, Force still managed to grab the top spot and she hopes that momentum will carry over into Saturday and, eventually Sunday, as she looks to turn around a wobbly start to the season.

“We definitely have something to prove. And to do it at this track, with all of these fans out there where I got the win last year, would be incredible,” Force said. “We are excited for what the rest of this weekend holds.”