POINTS-LEADER FULLER PACES FIELD FRIDAY AT NORWALK

NORWALK, Ohio (June 29, 2007) – Rod Fuller continued his torrid streak of qualifying his David Powers-owned dragster amongst the top of the pack in NHRA’s Top Fuel division Friday evening at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park. The rising Top Fuel star used a pass of 4.533-seconds to lead Top Fuel qualifying on the opening day of the inaugural Norwalk race.

On his first career attempt at the storied Norwalk quarter mile, Fuller’s plain white rail shook the tires and slowed to a 10-second elapsed time. That positioned the four-time NHRA winner 17th in the 16-car order. On the outside looking in, the Las Vegas racer used a tune-up from veteran crew chief Rob Flynn to blister the Norwalk strip in 4.533 seconds at 323.50 mph and earn the provisional No. 1 qualifying position. Fuller earned the pole at the Atlanta and St. Louis races earlier this season and hasn’t qualified lower than fourth this year.

“I’m amazed it held,” Fuller said. “It dropped a couple of cylinders and shut off early. I thought it would be fifth or sixth. I’m surprised a lot of the other cars had trouble getting down the track, but sometimes you see a good run early in the order and they tune it up and the track won’t hold it. I guess that’s all it would take. They said that’s a new track record, so that’s cool. I think we can run even better tomorrow, but so can a lot of other cars.”

Top Fuel qualifying resumes on Saturday afternoon with sessions scheduled for 1 and 3:30 p.m. (ET) at the Norwalk facility. ESPN2 will televise two hours of qualifying highlights at 11 p.m. (ET) on Saturday evening.

Q1 10.625 ET, 75.26 MPH No. 17
Q2 4.533 ET, 323.50 MPH No. 1