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DALLAS, post-race: Jeff Arend lost in the opening round of eliminations at the 19th annual O’Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex. Arend was beaten by John Force for the third time this season and will now head to Route 66 Raceway in Chicago, the same track where he made the quickest and fastest run of his career earlier this year.

Arend entered Sunday’s eliminations in the No. 16 position after qualifying for his 14th race of the season with 4.932 at 312.93 mph. The Canadian born racer was faced with the task of racing No. 1 qualifier John Force during the first round of eliminations on Sunday.

The weather remained dry and warm for race day, with only a few clouds in the sky. Arend and Force were the fourth pair of Funny Cars to battle it out during the opening round of eliminations. Arend, who has left the starting line first almost 65-percent of the time this season, got the jump on Force at the flash of green with .073 to .084 reaction time. Unfortunately, the CMKXtreme Machine slowed to a 5.292 at 238.05 mph and Force drove around Arend for the victory with a 4.883 at 318.54 mph.

“We were behind from the beginning after missing the first round of qualifying Friday,” said Arend, “but we were still able to put the CMKXtreme Machine in the show. The 4.93 was one of the quicker Funny Car bump spots of the season, so that gives you an indication of how good the track was.”

The CMKXtreme Machine slowed to a 5.29 against Force after the motor spit out a spark plug on the launch. “We went up there against Force just looking to get down the track and run a mid-4.90 and let him make a mistake,” Arend added. “But he didn’t make a mistake, he ran Low ET and Top Speed of the first round. The CMKX car shot a spark plug out of the head and was only running on seven cylinders, that’s why it slowed down so much.”