During any given race weekend, a number of different factors can take hold and dominate the headlines.

Sometimes it is the drivers that take center stage. Sometimes it is the cars. On Saturday, it was the weather that owned the spotlight.

Racing impending weather as much as the other cars, Bob Tasca was one of just a handful of nitro drivers to get in a second qualifying pass on Saturday. The driver of the Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford launched from 12th up to first moments before rain washed out the remainder of the session and prevented others from improving their times at the Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals presented by Pennzoil at Houston Raceway.

“It is funny, we were just in the trailer talking about the weather. We shook the first round, but the good news is that meant we were the second pair out (in Q2). We knew we had an opportunity. We saw the radar and we went up there and tried to go for the pole. We had nothing else to lose,” Tasca said. “It was great to see the car jump up to the number one spot and run such a good speed. Coming out of Charlotte, where we didn’t have 100 percent handle on the setup, it is nice to go into Sunday in the number one spot here.”

Tasca blasted from the bottom half of the field to the top spot with a 3.908-second pass at a blazing 331.53 mph in the second pairing of Q2. His pass was just enough to drive around the quickest car from session one, Alexis DeJoria. DeJoria slipped to second in her RocKit/Bandero Toyota with a 3.912-second pass at 307.44 mph.

Ron Capps, who failed to get down the track under power in Q1, was another driver lucky enough to get in a second pass in the Lone Star State and took full advantage, driving his NAPA Dodge to third with a 3.941 at 315.42 mph. Cruz Pedregon was fourth with a 3.943 at 323.12 mph and Robert Hight rounded out the top five with a 3.954 at 324.05 mph.

Saturday’s effort gives Tasca his first No. 1 qualifier of the season and sixth of his career.

“How could I not have confidence (in this car). I’ve got the two best guys turning the knobs. I’ve got a great team behind me. I’ve got a lot of confidence that this car can go out there and win races, which we have already done this season,” Tasca said. “We know the target is on our back. It is a long season and we just want to go and take advantage of every shot we’ve got to go down the racetrack. And if we end up in the winners circle, then so be it. We are just really focused on going round by round.”

While Tasca and others were able to take advantage of a second qualifying session on Saturday before rain took hold of the track, others were not so lucky.

Most recent race winner and third place man in points John Force qualified in the bottom half of the field and will find himself in a monumental first round matchup with another 2021 race winner and the second-place driver in points J.R. Todd.

Tasca will get Jim Campbell in round one on Sunday, while DeJoria will lock horns with Todd Simpson.

Having already won twice in 2021, Tasca is excited about the momentum his team is showing and credits their current successes to moves made more than two years prior.

“I think our success this year started back in 2019. Mike (Neff) and Jon (Schaffer) came aboard and we started to really put our noses down and build a team and build a program,” Tasca said. “Ford kept my team together this year which was critical. We worked all winter on a lot of odds and ends to find those thousandths of a second, which is what we needed. We lost a lot of races last year by thousandths of a second and it is starting to pay some dividends for us this year.

“We’ve got a long season ahead of us, but we have an unbelievably talented team out here. We are just going to try and do the best we can and see where it ends up.”