John Force had a plan. And knowing the 16-time champion, the plan was likely uber aggressive and designed for maximum impact. 

Instead, Force came to the starting line during Friday's Q2 Funny Car session at the Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals outside of Charlotte with a car that he believed was the opposite of his personality, tuned down. 

Force drove his Chevrolet Camaro flopper to a 3.850 second elapsed time at 334 miles per hour to claim the provisional No. 1 qualifying position.

So much for being conservative. Or was Force being conservative?

"We have been looking for consistency, and then it ran that 3.85," Force explained. "I went back to Daniel Hood [crew chief], and I said, 'I kind of thought you were going to calm this down, see what it could do, and get us in the show." 

"He said, 'Well, I did calm it down, and it just ran. I backed it down a little bit more. But the air turned it up, and it ran quicker."

Though Force once spun in anxiety at the thought of staging four cars at a time and racing four wide in general, he's learned to embrace the beauty of sensory overload. 

"It's unbelievable," Force said of seeing Funny Car header flames out the side window. "I remember one night in Boise. The first time I went down, I saw header fire from two cars. We were side by side and looking straight, but you could see him at night lit up, and on this run, it was just starting to close in, but then to watch the other ones coming back it's the most beautiful thing. 

"It's like looking at a sunset. It's glorious to me. I look at the world differently than most normal people. It's just the sound and everything; it's pretty cool."

Force needed the run this week if only to take his mind off of his shortcomings on the track recently and a few personal issues that have dogged him out. 

"Sometimes, you get tested in life," Force said. "So to come back and run like this tonight, tomorrow's a whole new day. I don't know what the conditions will be, but they're out there. Trust me, those ETs are coming, and Capps, Hagen, Robert Hight, they ain't forgot how to do it, so we'll see where it goes. But that's what makes it really exciting to me. You know what I mean? Just to be in the hunt. That's where I want to be."