Veteran nitro Funny Car driver Bob Bode is coming off a strong showing at the U.S. Nationals Sept. 3.

The part-time competitor qualified No. 15 and then upset Bob Tasca III in the first round. Bode had a 4.171-second elapsed time to defeat Tasca who slowed to 4.597 seconds. It was Bode’s first career round win in nitro Funny Car at the U.S. Nationals.

Bode’s day ended with a second-round loss to Shawn Langdon.

Bode said he will return to the track to compete at Las Vegas (Oct. 25-28) and Pomona, Calif. (Nov. 8-11), the final two races of the season.

“I have to save my money,” Bode said. “I have to pay for all the bills we ran up the last two races. Clean up the bills and go spend some more.”

Bob Bode did say he is hopeful his son Bobby, 16, will be driving his Funny Car sooner than later.

“He got his Super Comp license in April and we’re going in two weeks to (Frank) Hawley’s (Drag Racing School) to try and get him his Alcohol Funny Car license,” Bode said. “You have got to wait a year until he turns 18 and when he turns 18 we’re going to let him try it (drive Bob’s nitro Funny Car) and see how he does. If he does good, we will let him keep going and if not, we will just keep running him until he gets comfy. He could actually try and qualify (the nitro Funny Car) in (2020) in Pomona. We will see how he does. We have to work him in slowly. We don’t want to scare him and get him along too quick, but he might be good enough by then. He’s pretty darn good right now.”

The elder Bode did take a moment to think about his son driving.

“It would be a dream,” Bode said. “I wouldn’t give the seat up to anybody but my kid. He drove the Super Comp, he went 168 mph three times out of six passes and he was really comfy. He was good at it. He had great lights. He’s pretty comfortable where he is at, so hopefully it works well. He has a good career in front of him if dad can keep making money.”

Bob Bode’s most memorable drag racing highlight came on Aug. 15, 2010. That day, he stunned the racing community by capturing an improbable victory at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd (Minn.) by defeating Jack Beckman out of the Don Schumacher Racing stable.