There comes a time when a team decides that biting the bullet and branching out seems the best and only option if they hope to jump out front.

Friday night, during the Q-2 session for the NHRA Southern Nationals, was that moment for Robert Hight and crew chief Jimmy Prock.

The hunch worked, and they rolled to the Funny Car provisional No. 1 with a 3.952 elapsed time at 327.55 miles per hour. If the run holds, it will be the defending NHRA Funny Car champion's second pole position of the season.

"Leaving the pits Jimmy Prock can give you an idea of what this Auto Club Chevy’s going to run, but we changed so many things," Hight explained. "Normally we don’t change things like that unless we go test. But the clutch pack and everything that we have this year, it’s just been a little bit too aggressive, and we’re going into summer months. We know we’re going to deal with hot tracks, so we decided we’re just going to bite the bullet and we’re going to make the changes today."

During the day’s first run, Hight drove through the clutch and limped to a 5.023, 147.62.

If misery loves company, Hight wasn't the only one who had a tough time in the first session. There were no 300 mile per hour runs posted at all as teams continued struggling to grasp the NHRA's new traction prep process.

If tuning is an educated guess, Prock proved that he's a master of prognostication.

"Jimmy said, ‘I have no idea what it’s going to do,'" Hight recalled.

Once the car left the line, it became evident to Hight what was about to transpire. The fact the run went to No. 1 in the left lane was even more impressive to the veteran driver.

"If you look at all the other runs, the other good ones were in the right lane," Hight said. "The left lane’s a little trickier here, so to get the number one spot out of the left lane is pretty impressive.

"What I’m even more impressed with is the speed. 327, nobody even ran in the 320’s," Hight said. "We definitely had it hooked up and the changes that he made, we probably learned something that’s going to help us down the road. It was a good run. We haven’t run that good in a couple of races. It was good to see that 3.95 come up on the scoreboard."

Hight expects Saturday to be just as challenging despite more favorable conditions.

"I think it’s going to be a few degrees cooler and I also think there could be even a few clouds," Hight said. "So maybe the track won’t get to 130 degrees. You know 130, that’s hot, and you know, when you’re dealing with 10,000 horsepower, you have to really cripple these things to make them go."

But then again, as Hight will attest, it's all a matter of biting the bullet and trying something new.