The early qualifying session on Friday at the New England Nationals was a great fit for nitro Funny Car driver Chad Green.

Green clocked a 4.100 at 310.98 in the less-than-ideal conditions to capture the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot in Epping, N.H.

The qualifying session for Funny Car and Top Fuel drivers was moved up to 1 p.m. (ET) Friday because of rain forecast for later in the day.

“The run felt pretty good,” Green said. “We were trying to go faster than that, obviously, but the car put a hole out going down through there. I felt it kind of make a move, so I drug it back to the middle and tried to get it to the end. I didn’t think it was going to be very good; it’s a tricky track today, but we were one of the only cars to make it down, so we feel pretty good about that.”

Green has had a strong season as he came to Epping sixth in the points standings. He has a 9-6 elimination round record and has four semifinal finishes in the six races this season.

“Tomorrow, the weather situation is going to be totally different than it was today, so we’ll definitely have a different tune-up in the car tomorrow,” Green said. “We have the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge tomorrow, and we’re really excited about that. I’d like to be the first Funny Car driver to win it twice.”

Green has competed in 34 NHRA nitro Funny Car events and is still searching for his first No. 1 qualifying spot and first national event win.

“It would mean so much to have this No. 1 at the end of the day tomorrow, but what we really want to do now is get a win,” he said. “We’ve gone rounds, made it to the semifinals a bunch of times – but we’re ready to take that next step and get that Wally.”

The Funny Car drivers have two qualifying sessions scheduled for Saturday.