Jeff Arend, driver of the DHL Funny Car, made his second final-round appearance of the 2010 Full Throttle Drag Racing Series in Sunday’s final eliminations of the O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka in Topeka, Kan.

Arend, a 47-year old native Canadian and resident of San Dimas, Calif., battled against reigning NHRA Funny Car world champion Robert Hight in the final round. The two fan favorites put on a great side-by-side drag race for the fans all of the way down the 1,000-ft. track. At the finish-line stripe, Hight just barely nosed out Arend to get a very close win, 4.150 seconds, 300.80 mph to 4.104 sec., 303.50 mph.

Arend also raced to a runner-up finish in Houston last month. The trip to the flopper final in Topeka was the fifth chance that Arend has had to “run for the money.” He has two career victories in the NHRA Funny Car class, the most recent coming in Memphis, Tenn., last fall.

Jeff Arend, driver of the DHL Funny Car, made his second final-round appearance of the 2010 Full Throttle Drag Racing Series in Sunday’s final

eliminations of the O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka in Topeka, Kan.

Arend, a 47-year old native Canadian and resident of San Dimas, Calif., battled against reigning NHRA Funny Car world champion Robert Hight in the final round. The two fan favorites put on a great side-by-side drag race for the fans all of the way down the 1,000-ft. track. At the finish-line stripe, Hight just barely nosed out Arend to get a very close win, 4.150 seconds, 300.80 mph to 4.104 sec., 303.50 mph.

Arend also raced to a runner-up finish in Houston last month. The trip to the flopper final in Topeka was the fifth chance that Arend has had to “run for the money.” He has two career victories in the NHRA Funny Car class, the most recent coming in Memphis, Tenn., last fall.

Arend qualified the DHL entry in the No. 3 starting position (4.104 sec., 305.84 mph) for Sunday’s race day. The lofty qualifying spot was not only the best the DHL team has achieved this season, but it is the best they have qualified since Arend joined Kalitta Motorsports in August 2008.

En route to the final round, Arend defeated Jeff Diehl, points leader John Force, and Jim Head in respective rounds.

“We really had a great weekend in Topeka,” Arend said. “From qualifying through to the end of the day on Sunday, we just had a great weekend. Sure, we would have had a much better weekend if we would’ve gotten the trophy, but I’m so proud of the way our car ran in eliminations. Our DHL Funny Car didn’t make a bad lap all day, and that’s the consistency we’ve been struggling with all season, and it finally came together for us today. I think today’s performance by our team will be the turning point of our season. We would probably race the next event tomorrow if they would let us.”

Arend remains in 11th place in the Full Throttle Funny Car championship points, only 53 points away from the top ten. He and the DHL team cut the deficit to 10th place by 43 points with their run to the finals.