NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Improvement was not an option for most Funny Cars, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t room to impress in Thunder Valley. John Force and his PEAK Blue Def Chevy Camaro certainly did that on a 126-degree track in the third Funny Car session on Saturday afternoon. 

Force ran a 4.001-second pass at 325.77-mph to snatch three bonus points away from Ron Capps in the final run of the session and inch ever closer to earning pole position in Bristol. The 16-time champion is looking for this third No. 1 qualifier of the season. 

Related: Funny Car Qualifying Order

Capps made a 4.002-second run at 317.79-mph to show the way early in the session on a very warm track in the third Funny Car qualifying session at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat tuner Rahn Tobler has proven himself a master at tuning in warm conditions and he continued his run of dominance when the mercury rises by securing two points for team NAPA. 

J.R. Todd grabbed a pair of bonus points for the DHL Toyota Camry squad with a 4.012-second pass. The defending world champion made a smooth run in his Todd Smith/Jon Oberhofer-tuned flopper. 12 of the 15 cars entered have made clean runs down the track, with only Tim Wilkerson, Jim Campbell and Jeff Diehl looking to get down the boulevard in the final session. 

Diehl was pushed off the starting line before getting a chance to fire his car up. He is currently in the No. 15 qualifying position and will race Shawn Langdon in the first round if nothing changes. 

Matt Hagan is sitting on the quick half of the field with a 4.012. He was not able to improve on his time in the third qualifying session and will race Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. in the first round unless one of them can move up the sheet in the final session, which is scheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern. 

You can catch that session live on NHRA.tv or check out the television broadcast on FS1 at 10:30 p.m. Eastern.