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BRAINERD, pre-race: When CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car driver Jeff Arend arrives in Minnesota to compete at the 23rd annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals he'll have only one thing on his mind. The 41-year-old veteran Canadian drag racer wants to use his first career visit to Brainerd International Raceway to keep his qualifying streak alive and record his first round win of the season.

Arend and crew chief Paul Smith have combined to qualify the CMKXtreme Machine Funny Car for 10 races in 11 starts, including the last eight events in a row, since the former national event champion's return to the cockpit this past April in Las Vegas. Arend has posted his career-best elapsed time (4.844-seconds) and speed (318.77-mph) since the team's whirlwind season began, but winning rounds on Sunday have been harder to come by for the crew of the CMKX Corvette. But the team's misfortune during eliminations has galvanized their efforts to work even harder to attain their goals.

"We've been qualifying consistently," said Arend, "and sooner or later the team's hard work and determination is going to pay off. The combination of putting together a new team, working with new tire and fuel combinations and getting a late start on the season have made things more difficult for us. But when you consider all of those factors and the fact that we've qualified for ten out of eleven races right out of the box, then you begin to understand that we've accomplished a lot for being together such a short time. Our first round win is so close we can literally taste it and Brainerd would be the perfect place to get that monkey off our back and start showing what we've got."

Arend and the team expect another large turnout of CMKX shareholders at the Lucas Oil Nationals. CMKM Diamonds founder and Chairman of the Board, Urban Casavant, who is just returning from a short stay in the hospital, has been delighted with the responses he's received from shareholders who've attended NHRA national events this season. "The CMKX shareholders are overwhelmed when they come to the races. They love the fact that they can spend time with Jeff Arend and watch the CMKX team perform their magic on the car right in front of them. Everyone who has shown up to visit us at the track has been impressed by the professionalism of the entire team and Jeff has done a great job with the fans. I want to thank everyone for their cards and prayers while I was in the hospital and I look forward to seeing everyone at the track again soon."

Arend enters the Lucas Oil Nationals in the number 16 position in the POWERade Drag Racing Series championship point's chase. He is still 94 points away from breaking into the Top 15 in the Funny Car class, with eight national events remaining on the 2004 NHRA schedule.