Thursday, Aug. 31, 2006 | 7:28 a.m.
Granddaddy of the drag races
Las Vegan seeks shot at glory in Nationals
Open-wheel racing has the Indianapolis 500, stock-car racing has the Daytona 500 and drag racing has the U.S. Nationals.
And, as is the case with Indy and Daytona, a win at the U.S. Nationals near Indianapolis can make a driver's career, which explains why Las Vegas resident and Top Fuel driver Rod Fuller was champing at the bit a full four days before his first qualifying pass Friday in the 52nd edition of the granddaddy of all drag races.
"I usually don't get into race mode until about Thursday or Friday, and my mom said it sounded like I was already in race mode," Fuller said Monday as he ran errands around town. "And she's right because it's Indy, and I'm so focused and everything right now is directed toward winning Indy."
Although the U.S. Nationals pays the same amount of points to win as each of the other 22 stops on the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series schedule, Fuller said there is no mistaking this event as "any other race."
"You win this race, and you're remembered forever," Fuller said. "People even say that if you win this race, people will remember you more than if you've won a world championship, which is mind-boggling to me."
Is Fuller buying that?
"No but I still want to win," he said.
Fuller, who is in his first full season in the NHRA Top Fuel category, has two wins this season (Phoenix and Englishtown) and is sixth with 937 points through 17 of 23 events. He trails class leader Doug Kalitta by 333 points.
This will be Fuller's second U.S. Nationals in a Top Fuel car, but he is no stranger to the quarter-mile track formerly known as Indianapolis Raceway Park.
"I've lost that race twice in the finals in my Sportsman cars, which still haunts me to this day," he said. "To get so close - and in a Sportsman car, it's a four- or five-day marathon just to get to that point because there are so many cars.
"To make it to the final and to lose I lost one year by one one-thousandth of a second, and four years later I lost by four ten-thousandths of a second."
Those losses notwithstanding, Fuller said he is optimistic heading into Friday's opening round of pro qualifying at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. He was the No. 1 qualifier at the most recent NHRA national event in Memphis, Tenn. - although a mechanical malfunction prohibited him from making his first-round run - and he's coming off what he called a successful test last week in Indianapolis.
"I feel like if we would have been able to run at Memphis, we'd be rolling into Indy with momentum," he said. "But I still feel like we have momentum because we were the best car at Memphis."
As if he needed additional motivation to do well this weekend (final eliminations are Monday), Fuller just needs to look at the side panels of his dragster. Valvoline, which has sponsored the David Powers-owned dragster since last season, is moving its sponsorship to Don Schumacher Racing next season, Fuller said.
"It's not bad if a sponsor leaves because they have different commitments but when they're leaving you to go to another team, that's hard," he said.
"Not that I don't try hard, but when I'm mad, I'm even better. And I'm mad."
Shaking the Strip
Local drag racing fans in search of a fix need look no further than The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which is offering a veritable smorgasbord of speed this weekend.
Jet Dragsters, Jet Funny Cars, the Pacific Street Car Association, NHRA Junior Dragster "Junior Jam," freestyle quad exhibitions and a fireworks show highlight the "Labor Day Weekend Motorsports Spectacular" Friday through Sunday.
The big draw should prove to be the 300-mph jet cars, the final pair of which will run in the dark Saturday night at approximately 10 p.m., according to Chris Blair, the speedway's senior director of drag racing operations.
"The last time we ran jet cars, they shook the windows loose in our control tower," Blair said. "With so many more jet cars making more runs, our maintenance department will have to reinforce and reseal our windows.
"We hope the building can take the abuse of so many burner-pops and afterburner blasts."
A complete weekend schedule can be found at www.lvms.com.
6
Career U.S. Nationals victories for NHRA Pro Stock driver Warren Johnson (most among active drivers)
9
NHRA record for most U.S. Nationals victories (Bob Glidden, Pro Stock)
"It was fun at first and then it got painful. We are trying to work through it."
John Force
on his reality-based TV show, "Driving Force," which airs on the A&E network
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