Robert Hight shows no signs of slowing down.

Hight, who took over the season points lead in nitro Funny Car after his win at Charlotte last Sunday in the first race of the six race Countdown to the Championship, took the provisional No. 1 spot Friday at the Dodge Nationals in Reading, Pa.

Hight grabbed the coveted position by setting both ends of the track record at Maple Grove Raceway with his 3.844-second time at 339.02 mph in his John Force Racing Chevy Camaro. The old records at Maple Grove were 3.850 seconds by Jack Beckman and Matt Hagan’s 333.99 mph lap.

“I’m pretty excited that we are having these kinds of conditions because it is really very similar to how we left off in Charlotte a week ago and we know how that went,” Hight said. “It wasn’t like you had to come in here and make major changes. Its major changes compared to how you would normally run here in Reading, because it is usually cool and rainy. This time of year (here) I think is unseasonably warm. We picked right where we left off and we got five (bonus) points today and that’s really what we are looking at right now. We are taking it run by run, counting every point we can because I think it is going to be hard to have six good races in the Countdown and if you can get a lot of those little qualifying points, it is going to make up for having a bad race. It’s hard to put six races in a row together.”

Hight, who won the 2009 nitro Funny Car world championship, was quick to praise his crew chief Jimmy Prock.

“Jimmy Prock is so confident right now,” Hight said. “I can just see it when I’m sitting in the car, I can see he and Chris Cunningham are talking about it and they compare runs. They were looking at a run we made in Indianapolis and they said how do you think this compares and we ran 85 and then we came up here and ran an 84. If you have a handle on a car that you can run within a hundredth of what you set it up for, man you have it going on. It is amazing. We have to go out there (Saturday) and get six more points, that’s really what we are trying to do. Getting him (Jimmy Prock) was a shot in the arm to the John Force Racing team. It would be so cool to get another championship with Jimmy.”

Hight’s mph was second fastest in the history of the nitro Funny Car class. Only his 339.87 mph in Sonoma, Calif., in July was faster.

“When we ran 339 mph before we went over 290 mph at halftrack, and we only went 288 (Friday), so that shows how much horsepower we are making to get this thing to run from 288 mph to 339,” High said. “That’s 51 mph it is picking up in the back half. A few weeks ago, in Brainerd (Minn.) when we ran 3.79 we went 294 mph at halftrack and if we could ever put these together, you’re going to see well over 340 mph. One of these days we’re going to get it. We’re the only car that’s ever gone 339 mph and so close to 340. That’s a big barrier and we’re gunning for that.”