Last season, Brittany Force celebrated her birthday by earning the No. 1 qualifying spot for the Route 66 Nationals in record-setting fashion.

After accomplishing a similar feat Saturday in the Monster Energy Chevrolet, Force hopes to celebrate in style Sunday evening with a big trophy.

Based off her run of 3.711 seconds at 323.04 mph in Friday’s evening sessions, Force earned the top qualifying spot for today’s eliminations.

“Something about this birthday weekend in Chicago seems to work for us,” Force said.  “And now, we want to end up in that winner’s circle. That 3.711 was just outstanding and it put us way up there ahead of everybody. We gained some points, and that’s awesome for our team.”

Ironically, the most recent No. 1 qualifier for Force came last year at Chicago.

“It’s been a pretty good weekend for us, especially since we earned our first No. 1 of the season,” Force said.

The only down note for Force came in her final qualifying run Saturday night when her car experienced a mechanical gremlin late in the run before exploding. “That was a little bittersweet,” Force said.

Force said she suspected trouble by the way her car was idling before the run.

“I knew something was wrong by the sounds, so it was kind of iffy pulling in to stage the thing,” Force sad. “We had a decent pass going but I felt it getting in trouble down there at the 600 feet mark. I was hoping it would hang on until the finish, and then I just felt it blow up. I didn’t how bad the damage was until I got out of the car and saw that that injector had been cracked off.”

Force said she wasn’t going to let that misfortune spoil her party plans.

“It was rough having the car take some damage on that our last run and it’s going to take a lot of work for the team tonight,” Force said. “But we held on to the No. 1 spot and it all will be worth if it we can end up in the winner’s circle.”

While Force said her car responds well to the Chicago track, Sunday’s hot conditions will present a curveball to all tuners and driver.

“We want to take advantage of every single run we can,” Force said. “Sunday will really be a challenge. The only times we’ve made decent runs is when the track has been cooler.”

Three-time No. 1 qualifier Leah Pritchett followed Force in qualifying with a pass of 3.723 at 326.56 in her Papa John’s dragster.

Clay Millican, who earned his first career in emotional fashion at Bristol Dragway on June 18, qualified third with a pass of 3.739 at 325.22 on his final run of the day.

Forget the cakes, candles and other goodies, Force said her mission on Sunday is clear.

“All I care about is winning the race,” said Force, who has one win on the season. “That would be the best (birthday) gift I could have, standing in winner’s circle with my Monster Energy team.”

Veteran Chris Karamesines was the only driver failing to make the field.