Josh Hart sounds like he’s being a little hard on himself.

The owner of the R+L Carriers Dragster criticized his driving through the first four races of the season, but after grabbing the provisional No. 1 qualifying position Friday night – after a series of rain and clean-up delays – at the Circle K Four-Wide Nationals, he didn’t need to.

He powered down the 1,000-foot zMAX Dragway course at Concord, N.C., with the day’s only 3.6-second pass – a 3.689-second run at 328.38 mph – for what he said he considered a breakout performance.

“It’s nice to finally hit that milestone where we can demonstrate what we’re really capable of,” Hart said at the end of the opening day of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series’ second straight four-abreast race. “The team deserves it.”

He joined six-time winner Alexis De Joria (Funny Car), Phoenix top starter Cristian Cuadra (Pro Stock), and Gatornationals winner Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) atop the leaderboard. Two Saturday qualifying sessions remain before Sunday’s eliminations.

The Ocala, Fla., resident won the Pep Boys All-Star Call-Out bonus race (and its $80,000 payout) at the season-opener at his “home track” at Gainesville, and he said he felt he “had the winning car” there. Since that specialty-race success, he started the campaign with three consecutive Round 1 losses – but he rebounded with a final-round appearance at Las Vegas in the first of the season’s two four-wide races.

Still – despite battling a strained neck muscle in his best effort so far – Hart was tough on himself. He said he allowed “a lot of distractions” to interfere with his passes and said he’s rededicated himself “to just focusing harder and stronger.”

“It was never a car problem, it was a driver problem,” he said. “I’ll openly admit that. I can make a bunch of excuses, but I just didn’t do my job. I messed up in the first round of the Gatornationals, and then we battled gremlins at the Arizona Nationals. We made some progress at the Winternationals, and I think we got back on track in Las Vegas, racing to that final quad. I feel good coming to Charlotte about my driving and the race car. [Crew chief] Ron Douglas is the best, and I wouldn’t trade my crew for anyone else in the pits.”

“I enjoy racing at zMAX Dragway and we have had some success there,” said Hart, who won his second career Top Fuel title at Charlotte's fall NHRA national event in 2021. “It has been a while since we turned on three or four win lights there to get that Wally trophy, and I feel like we have a team that can compete for wins every weekend. We haven’t gotten off to the kind of start I wanted to this season, but we made progress in Pomona and Las Vegas.

“We didn’t perform last season as well as I was hoping but we learned a ton,” said Hart, who tasted success a number of times in the Top Alcohol Dragster category before turning to Top Fuel. “We had a new car, and that was the most Top Fuel races I ever raced in one season. I basically doubled my experience in Top Fuel last year. This season we knew what to expect, but the competition was also ready for us. We aren’t sneaking up on anyone this year.”

Hart said he “learned a lot” at the Las Vegas meet two weeks ago. And whatever he learned, he and his his team are benefiting from it this weekend.

He said a passerby told him that he and his crew seemed to be the only ones smiling Friday.

“So we’re doing something right,” Hart said.

And he’s hoping that translates to his first four-wide victory Sunday – then he and his crew will have another reason to continue smiling.