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Wilkerson was the 2016 winner here, defeating John Force. Only 2 Funny Car drivers (Force & Beckman) have ever won this race in back-to-back years. For Wilkerson, the Phoenix event will be his 447th NHRA nitro Funny Car race, with 20 wins and 17 runner-up finishes. He has finished in the prestigious top 10 in the Funny Car standing 12 times over the course of his career, including in each of the last nine seasons. He ran a new career best ET in his second qualifying pass. He has over a 51% win advantage in round one. Force and Wilkerson have raced each other 54 times in their long careers, with Force holding a 36-18 edge. John Force has competed in the NHRA Arizona Nationals 32 times, all in succession since 1985.Force has advanced to the final round of the Winternationals 13 times, winning seven times (1994-1997 and 1999-2001). His most recent final round matchup came last year, when he finished second to Force's record in elimination round races for the NHRA Arizona Nationals is 59-24.Force has been the No. 1 qualifier for the NHRA Arizona Nationals eight times, most recently in 2014, and has won twice from the No. 1 qualifying spot (1996, 1999). John Force has 8 wins here but none since 2005. He was runner-up last year. In 33 years here this is only the 6th time John has started from the bottom half of the field. Force has won his first-round NHRA Arizona Nationals matchup 20 times. If Force wins his first round matchup, chances are he'll make it to the finals. Only twice since 1994 has Force won the first-round matchup (13 times) but not made it to the finals (2013, 2014 - made it to semifinals twice). And his last second-round loss came in 1993. In his career, Force has 147 victories and 1,265 round wins. He has won 12 of the prior 18 round one races with Wilkerson. Wilkerson runs another career best ET and season best speed in an easy win. Force was away first, but the Camaro was way loose about 100 feet out and he had to lift. Hagan will have lane choice later. Tim Wilkerson's incremental times: 60ft-0.864 sec., 330ft-2.225, 660ft-3.116/288.46 mph. |