Robert Hight’s torrid NHRA season in 2022 continued Friday at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.

Hight, out of the John Force Racing stable, clocked a 3.865-second elapsed time at 330.31 mph to capture the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot Friday night.

If Hight keeps the No. 1 spot, it would the fourth of the season and the 75th of his career.

“First off, NHRA did an amazing job of getting the track dried and in great condition for us to all go out there and make great runs tonight,” Hight said. “The Auto Club Chevy, we made two runs in the eighties today, and you need to be happy about that. But I really listened to our track guy and the numbers that he's given us, I mean, it's good enough to run like we did in Sonoma (Calif.). We ran 82 there. This track is amazing. It's just that the air isn't quite where Sonoma was, so it's hard for people to make power. You're not seeing very many cars smoke the tires, so that shows you the power is down.

“Anyway, great job to my guys. And two runs. This is exactly what we need this time of year is to be making consistent runs and being able to tune off the previous run. That's how you're going to win a championship. And believe it or not, it's upon us. After this race, we go to Indy, the biggest race of the year. You want to win that, but then it's crunch time. So I'm excited where we're at this point in the season. We are going to stay here and test on Monday and hopefully only get better.”

Hight, who won NHRA Funny Car world championships in 2009, 2017 and 2019, arrived in Brainerd first in the points standings. He has six wins this season and has an incredible 38-8 elimination round record.

“This is a breath of fresh air after what we've been through the last few weeks and the heat and humidity,” Hight said. “I mean, it's been brutal everywhere we've been. So yeah, this is really nice. It's nice to take that fire suit off and not just be soaking with sweat. This is great conditions and it looks like we're going to have it all weekend. Fans are in for a great treat because there's going to be a lot of close side by side racing.”
Hight acknowledged he wasn’t optimistic about getting qualifying sessions Friday because of Mother Nature.

“Well, looking at the forecast (Thursday), today did not look good at all,” Hight said. “In fact, I was thinking it's going to be a washout, but the forecast kept getting better and better and better. This track really holds up well. A lot of race tracks when you see the kind of rain that we got here, the rubber starts lifting. But this is an amazing race track and it says a lot. It still holds the ET record for Funny Car, 3.79 seconds. And it's just an amazing racetrack. This is one of the best tracks on the circuit. You just have to get the conditions. We have cool conditions, but it's still pretty muggy and it's a little hard to make horsepower.”

If Hight wins Sunday, it would be his 60th career national event win in his decorated career. That milestone win is something that has been on his mind.

“Yeah, that's what I'm really looking at,” Hight said. “It's a career year. We've had six. Yeah, if we're going to win the championship, this is definitely going to be a career year because my prediction is it's going to take another three wins from here on out to win this deal. And if we happen to get a win here and in Indy, it's going to take even more than that. Because you're going to have to get some wins in the Countdown (the final six races of the year). They reset (the points) and it's all too close. So, you're going to have to get wins in the Countdown and no first round losses. If you have a first-round loss, you're going to have to make up for that with two wins.

“Well, my crew chiefs, they're never happy. We're always looking for an advantage, looking to get better. Problem with testing is you can go out and make some runs and it takes a few runs after that. You go to different conditions to actually learn whether what you're testing is better or not. But we're also trying some things for next year, some clutch discs that might or might not be available. And we're going to probably test during the Countdown at a few races too.”