Rod Fuller took a solid step towards continuing his trend of qualifying his David Powers-owned rail fourth or better in the Top Fuel order Friday evening at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. The Las Vegas racer clocked the second quickest pass of the day at 4.479 seconds to earn the provisional No. 2 starting position.
Fuller’s all-white dragster overpowered the Raceway Park quarter mile on his first qualifying attempt of the weekend slowing to a pass of just 5.968-seconds. Under the lights on Friday evening at the historic New Jersey drag strip, the four-time NHRA Top Fuel winner used a tune-up from crew chief Rob Flynn to clock a stout run of 4.479 seconds at 330.39 mph to finish second in the 16-car order. It was Fuller’s 10th 4.4-second elapsed time of the season. Through the first nine races of the season, only Fuller, Pro Stock’s Greg Anderson and Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Angelle Sampey have qualified fourth or better at each event.
“We know the weather conditions will be good on Saturday, ” Fuller said. “We were a little more conservative than we wanted to be. We wanted to get solidly in the show. We were shooting for a 4.48 to 4.51. We thought we could run 4.45, which we felt Brandon (Bernstein) and (Tony) Schumacher could run as well. I’ll never be disappointed with being second when you have guys like my teammate and Brandon and (Doug) Kalitta not making the field at some races. The plan for Saturday is to make sure we have consistent car for race day. ”
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