For a man who had just claimed his 11th No. 1 qualifier of the season, NHRA Pro Stock racer Mike Edwards was anything but brimming with confidence.

Edwards, the defending series champion from Coweta, Ok., ran a 6.644 elapsed time at 207.45 miles per hour to edge out championship contender Allen Johnson for the top spot at the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.

“We’re definitely not in front of the game,” Edwards cautioned. “We were just fortunate to make a real good run earlier today. I’m not the man any more, I am just trying to hold on and compete as good as I can. There’s a lot of cars out here that are faster than us right now.”

Edwards is adamant his team hasn’t been testing and as much as he regrets to admit, the competition has caught him.

For a man who had just claimed his 11th No. 1 qualifier of the season, NHRA Pro Stock racer Mike Edwards was anything but brimming with confidence.

Edwards, the defending series champion from Coweta, Ok., ran a 6.644 elapsed time at 207.45 miles per hour to edge out championship contender Allen Johnson for the top spot at the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.

“We’re definitely not in front of the game,” Edwards cautioned. “We were just fortunate to make a real good run earlier today. I’m not the man any more, I am just trying to hold on and compete as good as I can. There’s a lot of cars out here that are faster than us right now.”

Edwards is adamant his team hasn’t been testing and as much as he regrets to admit, the competition has caught him.

“We haven’t been testing, but we have been tinkering,” admitted Edwards. “We tinkered some in Seattle and a couple of things in Sonoma. We didn’t do anything in Denver. That Mopar just kicked the you know what out of us. He’s extremely fast and in my estimation, the car to beat.”

Johnson led Brainerd qualifying after Friday’s lone session but in the opening on Saturday, Edwards assumed the role of leader.

“He’s got the car to beat, actually,” Edwards continued. “All of the teams out there are the ones to beat but Johnson is definitely faster than us. I think there are seven or eight cars out here that can win the championship.”

Edwards has won eight times this season with the last one coming in June at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn.

“We’ve won a lot of races and only dominated twice,” We’ve won some races here and there. We are in for a dogfight and I don’t know whether we can hold or not, but we are sure going to try.”

With that said, Edwards believes the rest of the season will be a treat for Pro Stock fans.

“The next seven or eight races will be a treat for the fans, I promise you,” Edwards said. “It will be exciting, I promise you.”