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The boys from Don Schumacher Racing, based out of Brownsburg, Indiana who alongside a number of other teams manage the Abu Dhabi/Yas Marina Circuit dragster driven by the legend Rod Fuller.
To put their success into perspective, since 1998, Don Schumacher Racing teams have won 145 national events in 278 final rounds and eight world championships.
So it was great news for the Abu Dhabi/Yas Marina team to hear that Hot “Rod” Fuller pedalled said Top Fuel dragster to the No. 3 position Saturday afternoon at Infineon Raceway. The seven-time Top Fuel winner used a qualifying-best lap of 3.873-seconds on his final qualifying attempt to finish third in the order.
Fuller, a seven-time NHRA Top Fuel winner, entered the final day of qualifying at the 23rd annual FRAM-Autolite Nationals in the provisional No. 8 qualifying position after posting a lap of 3.977 seconds at 293.98 mph on Friday afternoon at Infineon Raceway. Friday’s second Top Fuel session was canceled due to the 10 p.m. (PT) track curfew.
On Saturday’s first attempt at the sunny Infineon strip, Fuller used a tune-up from crew chief Lee Beard to power his Abu Dhabi/Yas Marina Circuit dragster to the third quickest pass of the session at 3.942 at 299.93. That moved the University of Arkansas graduate to seventh in the 16-car order. Fuller carded his best run of qualifying on his final attempt with a blast of 3.873 at 310.13 to move to third in the Top Fuel order. The run was the quickest of Q4 and earned the team four bonus points.
“I’m thrilled with that last run,” Fuller said. “Our crew has been awesome all weekend long. It’s a tough, hot, tricky track and we ran in the three-second range on all three runs. Lee (Beard) and the guys have done a terrific job. We have a lot of talent at DSR on our side and we have a team and a race car that can win races. I know our fans back in the UAE will be thrilled to see how well we’re doing at our first race here in the States.”
Fuller will face off against No. 14 qualifier Mike Strasburg in the opening round of eliminations at 11 a.m. (PT) on Sunday at Infineon Raceway. Fuller also qualified third at Memphis in 2005 when he won his first career Top Fuel race (def. Tony Schumacher).
