Gainesville: Rod Fuller Friday summary

Fuller Grabs Provisional Pole Friday At Gainesville

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 16, 2007) -- Rod Fuller is certifiably hot. The Las Vegas racer and current NHRA points leader powered his David Powers-owned Valvoline dragster to the provisional No. 1 qualifying position Friday at Gainesville Raceway with a run of 4.535 seconds.

The 17-time NHRA national event winner -- four in Top Fuel -- used more that "Canadian Power" from crew chief Rob Flynn to blister the historic Florida quarter mile in 4.535 seconds at 323.66 mph to pace the Top Fuel order. There are 19 cars trying to make the cut this weekend. Fuller's red, white and blue rail overpowered the hot Gainesville quarter mile on its first attempt of the weekend.

"This is awesome," Fuller said. "Last week I was on crutches and now we're No. 1 qualifier at Gainesville. The knee didn't really bother me. I think the adrenaline just takes over. It's awesome to have my teammate in the No. 2 spot. These two David Powers dragsters are running great. There's no way that will hold tomorrow. We had to de-tune the car for that run because we were just trying to get in the show and we happened to hit it.

"I'm glad Valvoline is back for this race. I've been with them for so long, we have a great relationship. It's great that these 8,000 horsepower engines will continue to be lubricated by Valvoline. Hopefully, we can win this race for them."

Top Fuel qualifying continues at 1 and 3:30 p.m. (ET) on Saturday afternoon at Gainesville Raceway.

-credit: dpm