In his 99th career Top Fuel race, Fuller and Vandergriff used nearly identical reaction times, but the four-time NHRA Top Fuel winner s white dragster suffered a mechanical problem and slowed to a pass of 5.413-seconds. Vandergriff drove to a lap of 4.596 seconds to advance to his first final round since the 2004 season. Fuller ran his season mark to 10-4. He leads second-place racer J. R. Todd by 41 points.
“Overall, I m pretty happy with the results, ” Fuller said. “Deep down, I m depressed. Anywhere else, I d be happy with another semifinal finish, but being home, I m not. I want to win this race more than any other race, even Indy. This is home. How awesome would it be to celebrate with my friends and family.
“This is two races in a row that we ve broken something in the semifinals here. The car has been on, now we just need a little luck to win this race. We had some gremlins all weekend. We fought through them. I m just impressed with our race team. We ve been the points leader since February. We extended the points lead. Now, I m hoping for my third career national event victory at Atlanta in two weeks. ”
The next NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event is the 27th annual Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals, April 26-29, at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga. Fuller qualified third at Atlanta Dragway last spring. He is a two-time Super Comp winner at the Southern Nationals.
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