Hot Rod Fuller drove his David Powers-owned Caterpillar dragster to the provisional No. 8 qualifying position Friday evening at Virginia Motorsports Park with an elapsed time of 3.853-seconds.
Fuller, who posted a runner-up finish at the Richmond race two years ago (to Cory McClenathan), carded the sixth quickest pass of Friday’s opening qualifying session. The seven-time Top Fuel winner used a tune-up from crew chief Rob Flynn to card a lap of 3.866 seconds at 310.27 mph, the third fastest speed of the round. On Friday’s second attempt, the Carter Machinery/JLG car clocked a performance of 3.853 at 312.78 to finish the provisional No. 8 qualifying position. Fuller qualified seventh at the Richmond NHRA race last October.
“We had mineshaft conditions today and on that night run, but we just missed the tune-up,” Fuller said. “We just weren’t aggressive enough for the conditions. The bright spot is that we made two runs down the track and were very consistent. I do believe that we can go quicker on Saturday if there is cloud cover.”
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