Indy ORP: Rod Fuller Saturday notes

FULLER FINISHES IN NO. 12 POSITION SATURDAY AT U.S. NATIONALS

CLERMONT, Ind. hAug. 30, 2008) -- Hot Rod Fuller has piloted his David Powers-owned MacAllister CAT dragster to three consistent runs at the prestigious U.S. Nationals. The seven-time Top Fuel winner raced the Caterpillar-backed rail to the provisional No. 12 qualifying position Saturday at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.

Fuller entered the second day of qualifying at NHRA racing's marquee event ranked seventh with a lap of 3.913 at 303.43 on Friday evening. On Saturday's first attempt, Fuller used a tune-up from crew chief Rob Flynn to clock the second quickest pass of the session, 3.985 at 299.73. He was the first driver to post a three-second pass during the second qualifying session. Fuller than carded his quickest pass of the weekend at 3.903 at 304.67 to finish 12th in the 16-car order. Fuller, who has qualified for 78 consecutive races, has never qualified in the No. 12 position in his professional racing career. It is the only position in the 16-car order which Fuller has never qualified. He has seven career poles, including the Norwalk, Ohio race in June.

"I'm pretty happy with how our car is performing this weekend," Fuller said. "We might not be the quickest, but we're very consistent and that's important. Those night runs don't mean anything for race day and we ran very well during the heat. That makes me happy. I'm hoping we can make two solid runs tomorrow and I'll like our chances on race day."

Professional nitro qualifying resumes Sunday afternoon at O'Reilly Raceway Park with qualifying sessions four and five scheduled for 12:45 and 3:40 p.m. (ET). Final eliminations are scheduled for 11 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 1.

-credit: dpm