Mike Neff was magic from both outside and inside the cockpit Saturday, leading the Team Castrol John Force Racing Ford Mustangs to an impressive showing in the 25th annual Lucas Slick Mist Nationals at Firebird International Raceway.
Neff, who inherited double duty in the Ford Drive One Mustang when crew chief John Medlen was sidelined by chest pains Wednesday and didn’t make the trip to the desert, used crew chief skills honed while teamed with Gary Scelzi to get the blue-and-white Ford down the racetrack four consecutive times under power, a performance unmatched in the Funny Car division.
After recording a 4.050 on Friday, Neff rang up his slowest 1,000 foot effort in Saturday’s first session at 4.124 before coming before coming back to record the quickest time in the final Funny Car session at 4.063 seconds.
That locked up the No. 2 spot for Neff for the second straight year at Phoenix and will send him into Sunday’s first round against former JFR driver Gary Densham. Although Neff was unable to track down Ron Capps’ 4.023 for the No. 1 spot, he was quicker than Capps on both runs Saturday.
Facing the possibility of missing the starting lineup for the second straight year, Ashley Force handled the pressure spectacularly and wound up 12th in the qualifying order in her Castrol GTX Mustang. Unfortunately, that sends her against teammate and brother-in-law Robert Hight in round one.
John Force had one of the best qualifying performances of recent history and wound up third in the field, just behind Neff at the wheel of the Castrol EDGE Ford. The 14-time series champion was clocked in 4.069 seconds Saturday evening after posting a time of 4.109 in the first session. He was second quickest to a teammate on each occasion.
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