Paul Lee didn't have the fastest Funny Car at the NHRA Nevada Nationals in qualifying. And he's okay with that. 

What he did have was one of the most consistent race cars on the property with his FTI Performance-sponsored entry. Lee had three runs between 3.915 and 3.929. His fourth run was a 3.955.

Lee said he will take this kind of performance all day long. 

"This is the best race car I've had in a long, long time. Maybe ever in a nitro car since the IHRA days," Lee said. 

Lee wasn't always able to speak with such confidence. It wasn't until his seventh race on a part-time schedule before he won a round of competition. A considerable measure of this turnaround can be attributed to bringing John Medlen out of retirement to serve as an advisor. 

"It's all about the people, right?" Lee said. "We can race as much as we want to race, but I don't want to race unless I have a car that has a chance to win. Of course, that's everybody's goal, right? But it took us a long time to get there, and we're not quite, we're not there yet, but I mean we're making forward progress and that's what, as long as I see forward progress, then I'll keep at it.

"I'm doing this to try to win. I want to win a race. I haven't won a race in many years, and that's always the goal is to come out here and try to win, even if we don't have the fastest car. But, we're still going to try to win, especially now in the countdown; we're going to try to spoil some people's championship hopes, hopefully."

Once considered a giant killer, early in his transition to competitiveness. Now Lee is considered very capable of beating the good teams because he is one of them. 

"We are a middle-of-the-pack car, and that's what we are," Lee said. "That's reality and that's what we are, but I want to build up to be a top-five car, to be able to compete. It's not going to happen this year, but hopefully, down the road, that's what we're building for. If you're not moving forward, you're going backwards.

"Why do it? If you don't have a car to win, I'm not here just to participate. I want to win. So, right now, we're gaining on it, and as long as we can run close to what the big boys are running, then maybe we have a chance to beat them."