After losing in the first round last week in Reading, Wilkerson made it happen shorthanded after a number of injuries suffered by his crew over the last week.
"There was tremendous pressure today, a crazy, crazy day," Wilkerson said. "You know, it started out pretty good run first round and went down the track just like I wanted to and from there kind of went bizarre. We barely made it to the rounds in the semis and the finals. I'm very proud of my guys. We were thrashing I was out there, change the tires and put motors in. Lord, I'm worn out, I can tell you. On a good note, sometimes there's too much time to stare at the thing and make changes. And today I made wholesale changes and live with them, and it worked out."
RPM Round By Round:
Round 1 - Wilkerson faced off against Bab Tasca and was looking to get back into winning form after getting a taste back in Indy just a few weeks ago. While Tasca had the quicker launch, he hazed the tires shortly after and Wilkerson spec by to collect the win at 3.931 at 323.58 MPH.
Round 2 - A familiar match up against John Force was waiting in round 2. It seems like the two have battled a lot recently and Force holds a 43-22 advantage in previous match ups. Force drifted left and ended up hitting the last timing block giving the win to Wilkerson by DQ. Wilkerson still ran a very respectful 3.953 at 326.79 MPH.
Round 3 - Just a few more times than Force has been in the other lane, Ron Capps has also had many match up against Wilkerson. With a record 46-21 in Capp's favor, it began to look like maybe Wilkerson had bit too much off but that wasn't the case as he beats Capps to make it to the final running 3.909 at 315.42 MPH.
Round 4 - Cruz Pedregon was the matchup in the Funny Car final and Pedregon has a slight 24-20 advantage in previous races. Both cars were virtually equal at the launch but Wilkerson was just slightly better down the track. This was Wilkersons 2nd victory of the last 3 weeks and number 22 of his career.
Phil Burgess has the recap: