Championship Drag Racing

ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals
Las Vegas, NV
(October 26-29)

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Rod Fuller Yas Marina Circuit dragster

Las Vegas, Friday: Three-time NHRA winner and Las Vegas resident “Hot” Rod Fuller raced his David Powers-owned Valvoline Top Fuel dragster to the provisional No. 9 qualifying position to open qualifying for the sixth annual ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals Friday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Fuller, who has qualified fourth or better at the last eight NHRA events dating back to July, kicked-off qualifying at the fall Las Vegas race by powering his Lee Beard-tuned Valvoline rail to a performance of 4.584 seconds at 327.66 mph to card the fifth quickest run of Friday’s first qualifying session. Friday evening under the lights at The Strip, the Valvoline dragster was on a strong qualifying effort before a parts malfunction caused a small explosion as the local fan favorite coasted to a run of 5.754 seconds.

“At the last race at Richmond (Va.), we had back-to-back runs where the car smoked the tires, so we wanted to come out and make a good baseline run and get down the track,” Fuller said. “We weren’t going for a home run, but it was a nice, consistent run and we ended up fifth.

“We came back on the night run and were looking to step on it. We had a fresh engine and parts in the car, but sometimes the new parts don’t work as good as older, proven parts. The early numbers were really good, but it broke a camshaft. It was on a low 4.50 run. I’ve got a great team behind me and I know that Lee Beard and Rob Flynn will tune it up and we’ll be ready to go for the first round of the Budweiser Shootout.”

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