Columbus: Bob Vandergriff Jr Friday summary

VANDERGRIFF BLASTS TO No. 2 POSITION IN COLUMBUS QUALIFYING

HEBRON, OH., (May 19, 2006)- Bob Vandergriff Jr. took advantage of the cool evening air at the Pontiac Performance NHRA Nationals at National Trail Raceway Friday evening to lay down a career-best run of 4.513 seconds at 323.89 mph to land him in the No. 2 qualifying position. Vandergriff's run ended Friday's session as the rains returned to National Trail Raceway. The UPS team was glad to see their efforts pay off after testing at Atlanta Dragway two weeks ago, following a first round loss to points leader Melanie Troxel.

"We made a few a few really nice runs in Atlanta, and we thought we had a pretty good handle on the car," explains crew chief Jim Dupuy. "The weather here was cool, like it was in Atlanta on Monday, so I didn't really touch the tune-up. It shook real hard in the first session. We made some adjustments on that tune-up and we gave the motor some more power to make it happy and it gave us what we were looking for. It was really good to see a 4.51 come up."

"We are very excited about the 4.51, not only for being my career best, but it's the run we've been working toward for seven or eight races now," said a jubilant Vandergriff. " We knew the car was capable of it but we just hadn't been able to put it all together yet. It's great for me but I'm especially happy for my guys, putting all of their effort into it, they deserved a run like that, cause they have certainly worked their butts off for it. I'm glad to see it finally come."

-vm