BRANDON BERNSTEIN IN MEMPHIS FINAL FOUR; REMAINS FOURTH IN TOP FUEL COUNTDOWN POINTS

MEMPHIS (Sept. 16)– Brandon Bernstein drove his Budweiser/Lucas Oil Countdown car to the final four at the O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals, remaining fourth in points, and tightening the Top Fuel points battle.

Bernstein qualified second with a 4.566-second elapsed time and logged an event top speed of 327.35 mph during qualifying.

The Budweiser/Lucas Oil team earned an important opening round win against Hillary Will. Bernstein clocked a great 4.569/323.27 vs. Hillary's valiant 4.617/312.13.

"The countdown points we earn for every round we win are huge,” exclaimed Bernstein. “Tim (Richards, crew chief) made a lot of changes in the staging lanes before our run, but he had our Budweiser/Lucas Oil dragster dialed in."

Bernstein advanced to the quarterfinals to face his good friend J.R. Todd. Both are battling for a position in the Countdown to Four.

Bernstein edged Todd for the round win, 4.600/315.27 to Todd‘s 4.877/283.55.

“J.R. and I don’t like racing each other because we know there can only be one winner,” said Bernstein. “But we have a job to do. We’ll always remain friends.

“That was another good tuning call by Tim and we were fortunate to put 20 more points in the Countdown bank.”

In the semifinals, Bernstein squared off against Melanie Troxel. Both drivers lost traction and were on and off the throttle trying to get the tires to hook up. Bernstein went on a wild ride sashaying down the quarter-mile while trying to tame the 7,000-horsepower dragster. Despite his efforts, Troxel crossed the finish line first, 6.674/260.46, to Bernstein’s 7.748/138.87.

“These cars are temperamental,” explained Bernstein. “Sometimes you can feather the throttle and get the car back on track, but today the car wanted to go every which way.

“We went three rounds so we tightened up the points, which now makes performance at Dallas and Richmond critical. This puts a lot of pressure on the eight drivers and crew chiefs who are vying for those four positions trying to make the final cut for the championship showdown. It’s good for the fans, but we’re sweating every round.

“We need to defend our title at Dallas next weekend to see if we can’t get a firmer foothold on the upper rungs of the point ladder.”

Bernstein will remain fourth in Countdown point standings with two races remaining before the cutoff to the Countdown to Four.

Follow the Budweiser/Lucas Oil Top Fuel team at Kenny Bernstein Racing. Please visit our sponsors at Budweiser, Lucas Oil, Initializing...., AlphaTrade.com - digital media and marketing company specializing in creating networking opportunities to build your brand, sell more products, increase your web traffic and gain more attention for your company (OTCBB:APTD) and www.alphatradefn.com.