Richmond: Rod Fuller Friday notes

FULLER PEDALS TO NO. 9 SPOT FRIDAY AT RICHMOND

PETERSBURG, Va. (Oct. 5, 2007) -- Rod Fuller raced his David Powers-owned Caterpillar dragster to the provisional No. 9 qualifying position Friday evening following a lengthy rain delay at Virginia Motorsports Park south of Richmond.

Following a long afternoon rain shower and power outage during Friday's only Top Fuel session, Fuller, who enters the Richmond race ranked second in the Top Fuel standings, was able to make a lap. The Las Vegas racer used a tune-up from crew chief Rob Flynn to drive the yellow-and-black Caterpillar-backed dragster to a pass of 4.858 seconds at 317.05 mph. The run placed Fuller ninth in the 16-car order.

"It had a cylinder out early which is uncharacteristic for the CAT car," Fuller said. "At this stage of the Countdown, you need to get down the track and get in the show. Our teammate (Whit Bazemore) made an excellent run. We have their data. We'll come back and make a strong run on Saturday and get into the top half of the field."

Top Fuel qualifying resumes with sessions scheduled for 12:30 and 3 p.m. on Oct. 6. ESPN2 will televise one hour of qualifying highlights from the Torco Racing Fuels Nationals at 7 p.m. (ET) on Oct. 6.

-credit: dpm