Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana Jr. is pursuing perfection at this weekend's O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals.

Arana Jr. extended his streak of qualifying fourth or better to 16 consecutive races and will start Sunday's eliminations from the No. 3 position. But despite posting fast, consistent times in qualifying, Arana Jr. is looking for a lower elapsed time and higher speed out of his Pro Stock Motorcycle.

And he's looking for a victory.

"We definitely have the bike to do it," Arana Jr. said. "We've got to strategize, race smart and beat those (Harley) guys. We'll need perfect runs."

His qualifying pass of 6.854 seconds at 194.55 mph was third-quickest among the 15 bikes in Charlotte, but Arana Jr. said that run wasn't perfect. And neither was his pass of 6.884 seconds at 192.99 mph that was second-quickest in Q3.

"We still have more on the table," Arana Jr. said. "We hope to be able to get as close to a perfect run as we can tomorrow."

Arana Jr.'s bike was perfectly consistent from Q2 to Q3, running the same ET, despite warmer weather that usually brings speeds down. Arana Jr. also went 6.942 seconds at 192.80 mph in the final session .

"The bike's definitely been consistent," Arana Jr. said. "We missed the tune-up a little bit on that last session, and we drifted out of the groove a little bit. But as long as we stay consistent and we can be a little bit quicker, we should be all right."

Arana Jr. has been piling up qualifying points this weekend, as he got four total for being second in Q1 and Q3 and one more for being third in the final session. Those are important as the Countdown to the Championship, where Arana Jr. is third in the points standings, begins this weekend.

"Any points we can get right now are important," Arana Jr. said. "At the end of the season, when it gets down to it, it's going to count."

Arana Jr. squares off against Chip Ellis in the first round of eliminations Sunday. Ellis qualified No. 14 with a lap of 7.062 seconds at 187.26 mph.

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