VANDERGRIFF BLASTS TO No. 2 POSITION IN COLUMBUS QUALIFYING

2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 8 of 23
Pontiac Performance NHRA Nationals
National Trail Raceway
Columbus, Ohio
Race Date: May 19-21, 2006

    HEBRON, OH., (May 19, 2006)- Bob Vandergriff Jr. took advantage of the 
cool evening air at the Pontiac Performance NHRA Nationals at National Trail 
Raceway Friday evening to lay down a career-best run of 4.513 seconds at 323.89 
mph to land him in the No. 2 qualifying position. Vandergriff's run ended 
Friday's session as the rains returned to National Trail Raceway. The UPS team was 
glad to see their efforts pay off after testing at Atlanta Dragway two weeks 
ago, following a first round loss to points leader Melanie Troxel.
     "We made a few a few really nice runs in Atlanta, and we thought we had 
a pretty good handle on the car," explains crew chief Jim Dupuy. "The weather 
here was cool, like it was in Atlanta on Monday, so I didn't really touch the 
tune-up. It shook real hard in the first session. We made some adjustments on 
that tune-up and we gave the motor some more power to make it happy and it 
gave us what we were looking for.
It was really good to see a 4.51 come up."
     "We are very excited about the 4.51, not only for being my career best, 
but it's the run we've been working toward for seven or eight races now," said 
a jubilant Vandergriff. " We knew the car was capable of it but we just 
hadn't been able to put it all together yet. It's great for me but I'm especially 
happy for my guys, putting all of their effort into it, they deserved a run 
like that, cause they have certainly worked their butts off for it. I'm glad to 
see it finally come."