Funny Car rookie Eric Medlen has the entire Force think-tank, the one Tony Pedregon left behind, in his corner. And it showed in this first of three testing opportunities. Medlen registered the fourth-fastest speed of the weekend and the eighth-quickest elapsed time with his initial 4.797-second, 324.28-mile-an-hour pass. Only Force ran quicker and faster that day. No one else but Force and other teammate Gary Densham, driving Force's Automobile Club of Southern California Mustang, ran faster all weekend. Force owned the top four elapsed times of the weekend, and Densham had the next two. Medlen would have followed, were it not for Gary Scelzi's last-day blast of 4.794 --- three-thousandths of a second quicker.

Medlen's showing gave the 12-time champion and his longtime nucleus a fresh excitement, beyond Force's new motivation to reclaim the championship.

The 30-year-old California cowboy and racecar clutch specialist, whose only driving credentials are from go-karts and hydroplanes, startled the Force team crew chiefs with his instincts. He offered an observation about the Mustang's on-track behavior in his first 2004 run. His dad doubted his assessment, then studied the data and discovered the first-time driver was correct.

"He's not new here," Force said. "He's been with me eight years. He knows every inch of this car."

Still, even crew chief Austin Coil had reservations about Force hiring Eric Medlen. Perhaps he recalled the dinner at Brainerd, Minn., last August after which Medlen dashed into the restaurant kitchen and came out with a dessert tray and served the crew, chagrining dad John. At a Wal-Mart grand opening last month in San Antonio, Eric Medlen stood and watched hundreds of race fans ask for Force's autograph. Finally, he wandered around the store, offering his "hero card" to shoppers. "He was chasing people down the aisles," Force said with a laugh.

Maybe Coil saw the young Medlen's untamed enthusiasm and saw a young John Force, not to mention years of shifting from head case to headliner. "After driving that thing, you're just a wild man!" Medlen admitted. "Your excitement level is out of control! I was just in it and I thought, 'Man I need to sit down. I just need to calm down.' Then you get outside and boom, it's just right back because everybody's moving all around!"

Medlen chatters freely to everyone, saying things like inheriting the Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang that Tony Pedregon drove to the 2003 Funny Car championship feels "like getting a new puppy." He said of driving for Force and having father John Medlen as his crew chief, "It's dreamy. This thing is larger than life. It's like Hollywood. I was cleaning horse stalls 10 years ago." He said he carries on so that he thinks the crew is likely to unplug his radio connection. Like Force, he rambles through a response, then admits he can't remember the question.

But it shouldn't be long before Eric Medlen's signature is a hot commodity and he doesn't have to coax people to take it.

For all his exuberance, Medlen understands one thing: "I've got to step up to the plate."

However, he said Force has erased some of the pressure. Alluding to the new NBC-TV reality series "The Apprentice," Medlen said of his boss, "We have a relationship. He's not like Donald Trump -- you're fired. It takes a lot of pressure off. He told me, 'If the car blows up, we'll fix it. If you think it might blow up, please shut it off. If it feels right, drive it through the lights." His dad, too, gave him some valuable advice: "He told me don't play games at the starting line, stage the same way every time, and just race the race track."