Bob Tasca III smoked the tires in his first three qualifying runs at the Denso NHRA Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals.

That changed dramatically in Q4 Saturday.

Tasca clocked a 3.938-second lap at 324.05 mph to rocket to the top spot on the qualifying ladder.

This is Tasca’s fourth No. 1 qualifier this season to go with the ones he captured in Phoenix, Charlotte, N.C., and Norwalk, Ohio and his first ever in Sonoma. This is the 13th No. 1 qualifying position in his NHRA nitro Funny Car career, nine of which have come since the 2020 season.

Tasca has a history of some success in Sonoma as he won the national event at the facility a year ago, beating John Force in the finals.

“We struggled a little bit in Seattle” last weekend, said Tasca, who drives the Ford Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang. “We barely made E1, Sunday morning (July 23) because we broke our clutch controller which controls the heart of your clutch system. In 13 years, I have never cracked one, and we did Sunday morning in Seattle. That ended our day in Seattle. It just didn’t feel the same. We came out here (to Sonoma) and Friday we smoked the tires, and it smoked the tires again (in Q3). (Crew chiefs) Todd Okuhara and Aaron Brooks are pretty aggressive and on that last run (in Q4), they said they going to slow this thing down.

“They said they would be surprised if it ran 3.95 and it ran 3.93. It was so smooth. As a driver you can really feel the car and it was so locked in all. The way through. They said it ran 93 and I was like, ‘Wow.’ That’s better than we thought it would run.”

Despite the strong pass, Tasca didn’t think it would keep him in the No. 1 spot.

“I thought if my guys ran that again we would run a 90 flat, because it was that safe,” Tasca said. “I was really surprised to see that it held. It’s exciting to go to the pole, and it gives a pretty good shot to win that first round (Sunday). We would like to do as good as we did last year, that’s the bottom line.”

Tasca has a bye in first round and then will face the winner between J.R. Todd and Blake Alexander in round two.

“No one wants to go into Sunday with three tire smokes in a row, so that was critical data for us to have (in Q4) and we know we can probably push harder if we need to (Sunday) depending on who we are running and where we are in the fight,” Tasca said. “We also we can pull back and be safe. It is a great run to have in your pocket, and I’ve been so impressed with what Aaron and Todd have done all season long. I really believe the best is yet to come for our team and there would be no better place for us to win that right here.”

Although Tasca celebrated a victory in Sonoma in 2022, he knows the past will have no impact on the present.

“We have a whole new team this year, and a completely different race car,” Tasca said. “We have a different setup. The only thing that is the same about this race car is me. I love racing here (in Sonoma). This has been one of my top five tracks since I started my career. I don’t know, some racetracks you just feel more comfortable at. I’m ready for (Sunday) and I know Todd and Aaron and the guys will be ready.

“We have a setup where we can run on hot tracks and be the quickest car in the country, and we can run on the cool track and be the quickest car in the country. We have to be a little more consistent. You have seen flashes of that this season. We won the Epping race, and we have had a couple of semifinal performances. The team is just getting better, and I think you’re going to start to see that consistency pick up with this Motorcraft car. We are really focused on setting up for a big-time championship run.”

Tasca is aiming for his 14th nitro Funny Car Wally on Sunday and his eighth since 2021. He finished a career-best third in the points standings in 2021 and was fourth in the standings last year.