Funny Car racer Robert Hight had a week to think about his three-race winning streak. On Friday at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals, he had more time to think.

The same held true for his crew chief Jimmy Prock.

Persistent rain showers limited qualifying to one session and left many drivers idle throughout the day.

As badly as the defending series champion wanted to capitalize on his momentum, both he and Prock understood getting a place in the field with incoming Saturday weather was all they needed to do.

Funny Car racer Robert Hight had a week to think about his three-race winning streak. On Friday at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals, he had more time to think.

The same held true for his crew chief Jimmy Prock.

Persistent rain showers limited qualifying to one session and left many drivers idle throughout the day.

As badly as the defending series champion wanted to capitalize on his momentum, both he and Prock understood getting a place in the field with incoming Saturday weather was all they needed to do.

“I really don’t think Jimmy Prock was trying to run that hard,” said Hight, who leads the field provisionally with a 4.067 second run at 313.15 mph. “When we saw all the other cars smoking the tires we knew we just needed to get A to B and get down the track with a mid-teen. I think it even surprised Jimmy.”

Route 66 Raceway is one of the tracks on the NHRA Full Throttle tour where Hight has failed to capture a victory at. Friday evening’s run provided a bit of a challenge for Hight.

“It was smooth as can be,” Hight explained. “Out in the middle of the race track it got a little dark. It was like the lights went off for a second. I told myself don’t turn the wheel. I knew it was going straight to that point and then I had vision again. That is kind of the way it is at night. Once I could see I had my hands on the chutes at the other end it was just a perfect run.”

Hight’s run was nearly a tenth of a second quicker than Matt Hagan’s provisional No. 2 run of 4.142 seconds.

“When you run 313 mph that just proves that all the work we have done on our Auto Club Mustang has paid off,” Hight said. “This Mustang is happy. It runs clean to the other end. It is fast too. It is an unbelievable feeling. It is another three points but just to be qualified is a big deal. Jimmy told me on the radio beforehand a lot of guys aren’t going so if it does anything make sure you get it to the top end so it will be qualified.”

There was also a bit of the Prock magic, or second-guessing, which made the difference.

“This one was probably the latest we have ever made changes,” said Hight.” John’s car was already running and had the body down and we were still in the box. Jimmy told the guys to start my car but they were waiting on him since he was in the box. That is what we normally do but he meant we could start the car and he would still make adjustments while it was running. It was a last minute deal. I had to rush the burn out. He was making last minute adjustments. As a driver that kind of scares you. You don’t know what it is going to do when he is making last minutes adjustments. Right now you have to trust him. I always do. He definitely has a handle on it.”

If this time holds up it would be Hight’s fourth of the season and 36th of his career.