POINTS-LEADER FULLER FINISHES THIRD IN TOP FUEL ORDER AT THE STRIP

LAS VEGAS (April 14, 2007) – Rod Fuller and his David Powers-owned Top Fuel team put on a great show for his hometown fans and friends. The current NHRA points leader drove his all-white dragster to the No. 3 qualifying position with a 4.498-second pass Saturday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Fuller, who won the Phoenix race in February, made his quickest run of the weekend on Friday’s second attempt when he stopped the LVMS clocks in 4.498 seconds at 328.94 mph. After striking the tires on Saturday’s first qualifying run, Fuller powered his Rob Flynn-tuned rail to a stout 4.533 at 324.67 lap. It was the third quickest run of the round and marks the second straight race that Fuller has qualified third.

“We made a good solid run on Saturday afternoon,” Fuller said. “We went in test mode today to figure out how to get down hot race tracks. We have a lot more horsepower this year with that Canadian Horsepower from Rob (Flynn). Last year we were dominate on hot, greasy tracks, but this year we don’t have those tracks figured out. We do well on cool tracks. Rob (Flynn) is trying to figure out how to get down hot tracks. We felt good for that. The weather is supposed to cool off and that plays into our hands. I’ll never complain about qualifying third, and our teammate ( Whit Bazemore ) qualified fourth and we’re on opposite sides of the ladder.”

“The last run was to make sure we could go down the track,” Flynn added. “We should have been trying to push harder. We wanted a confident-boosting run. We’ve been spinning the tires when it’s hot out. We did what the car told us to do. Other than Whit (Bazemore), nobody really improved. I told David (Powers) if it ran a 4.55 to be happy. I feel good about tomorrow. We’ll see what the conditions are and adjust accordingly.”

Fuller will face off against No. 14 qualifier Mike Strasburg in the first round of Top Fuel eliminations at 11 a.m. (PT) on Sunday. ESPN2 will air three hours of final eliminations coverage at 7 p.m. (ET) on Sunday evening.

Q1 4.755 ET, 274.22 MPH No. 7
Q2 4.498 ET, 328.94 MPH No. 3
Q3 5.128 ET, 195.85 MPH No. 3
Q4 4.533 ET, 324.67 MPH No. 3