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John Force sits in third place in the after the Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals presented by Minties, but the legendary driver isn’t comfortable with the way his car is running. That prompted him to following the Topeka race with a focus on getting his PEAK Chevrolet Camaro running the way it was at the beginning of the season.

The numbers bear out Force’s concern. His 524 points put him 224 points behind Ron Capps and a mere six ahead of teammate Robert Hight. He trails a pair of Don Schumacher Racing floppers for the points lead, a position much of the field may envy a third of the way through the season. But a driver like Force is looking for more.

“Winning a championship’s not easy, but this is where you do it, right here in testing,” Force told John Kernan. “You’ve gotta compliment Capps for winning all those races, and I’ve done it, but I know what it takes. But sometimes when you’re on a roll you just get that magic and we’ve gotta get it away from him.”

Force pulled off a few runs in the 3.80s, a range he’s hoping to pull himself back into with more regularity, during testing. That’s going to be part of the formula for Force, but only part of it. Despite success through pedaling, good fortune, and a reliable right foot he’s made it down the track nine times in 18 rounds (50 percent) through the Heartland Nationals. Compare that to current points leader Capps, whose 19 successful trips in 25 tries (76 percent) is something to aspire to.

Then there are the numbers. Things started out hot for Force, Capps and Hagan with all three finding the 3.80s frequently in the early goings. But while Hagan and Capps have stayed neck-and-neck (as the chart below shows), Force’s numbers have been more erratic. Their rolling averages (which include only successful elimination round runs) are close: Force is at a 3.927, Capps 3.912 and Hagan 3.906 but that hundredth of a second matters on Sunday.

Perhaps most concerning for Force is his decline in speed. The sample size is small, but on Sunday in 2017 his average speed at half track (generally considered a great indicator for strong elapsed times) is down from 267.58 to 256.34. That holds true at the end of the runway, too. Force averaged 304.91 mph in 2016 and is down to 279.23 in limited action this year. Part of that stems from having less success finishing runs on a high note. He only had three runs with elapsed times slower than 4.5 seconds last season and has already clocked two this season.

Right now, Force needs reliability more than anything back in his Camaro. That’s what has put Capps at the top of the pack a third of the way through the season: going from a-to-b; though hitting the 3.80s with some regularity doesn’t hurt. Force has shown an ability to do that, five of his last 10 runs have come with elapsed times higher than 10 seconds. With the Eastern swing nearly upon us, let’s see if Force’s new tune-up has the answer to his reliability issues.