Ever since Jim Campbell started competing in NHRA’s nitro Funny Car ranks, he has always been a glass-half-full guy.

Fast-forward to 2022 and that positive mindset has remained for Campbell. Campbell has driven for legendary team owner Jim Dunn since the 2017 season.

Campbell lost in the first round of the Mile-High Nationals on July 17 to John Force. Force clocked a 3.997-second time at 324.59 mph to get past Campbell’s 4.234-second lap at 299.20 mph at Bandimere Speedway.

“I love the speedway,” Campbell said. “Bandimere Speedway is one of the finest facilities we race at, but it is very hard to run up here. On that last run, I had a hole out the whole way. If you can keep all eight lit up here, you’re doing good.

“Of course, you want to start out by winning Denver in the Western Swing, but our car has been improving so much at every race. I’m really stoked that we have been able to get the car down the track. We got it down the track three-out-four times (at Bandimere) and we will see what happens when get to Sonoma (Calif.).”

The next stop on the Western Swing is the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals (July 22-24) followed by the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals.

Campbell is 11th in the points standings – 70 points behind 10th place Chad Green.

“We have run well in Sonoma over the years,” Campbell said. “We hope to throw down some 3.90s down there. We are sitting No. 11 in the points right now and we are working our way up. We are going to make this Countdown (finish in the top 10 in the points standings after the regular season concludes) and see if we can make a move. Once you get so far, and then they reset the points (in the final six races in the Countdown).

“It is two different seasons. You have the regular season and the postseason. If we make it to the Countdown, we can run for the championship. We are making good progress. I ran some career bests for the team and myself in New Hampshire, and we have been running well. We just happened to get that pairing the other car makes it down the track. If we would have run rive other pairs, we would have won. It is just luck of the draw.”