Vandergriff happy to be starting from lucky No. 13 in Dallas

2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 19 of 23
O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals
Texas Motorplex
Ennis, Texas
Race Date: Sept. 22-24, 2006

ENNIS, Texas (Sept. 22, 2006) - Top Fuel driver Bob Vandergriff Jr. was able to breathe a sigh of relief as he positioned the UPS Top Fueler in the lucky 13th position for final elimination's of the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex.

"I never realized that I could hold my breath that long," shared Vandergriff after running a 4.658 second run at 314.68 mph on the fourth and final qualifying pass.

"Being on the outside looking in is never a position that you want to be in. We've been there a few times this season. Other than Indy, we've come through. We were in the position that we needed to go from A to B under power."

"After analyzing the third session data, I saw that we just missed, causing the car to haze the tires just after half track." explained crew chief Jim Dupuy. "It was pretty close. I just tuned it from there and we fought our way into the field."

Vandergriff has been introduced prior to Sunday's elimination's three times this season from the No. 13 position.

"We were the first pair up and knew we needed to run it hard," said Dupuy. If you didn't run hard enough, you'd be in for a minute, then out as the next pair of cars ran. It was an exciting session, you were in and then you were out."

Vandergriff will take on "Hot Rod" Fuller in the first round of Sunday morning's final elimination's.

                    

RACE SCHEDULE: 
SUNDAY, Sept. 24, Pre-race ceremonies, 10 a.m. Final elimination's begin at
11 a.m.

TELEVISION SCHEDULE:    
Sunday, Sept. 24, ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD will telecast NHRA 2Day, a 30-minute
news magazine show, at 11:30 a.m. (ET).
Sunday, Sept. 24, ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD will televise three hours of final
eliminations at 7 p.m. (ET).

SATELLITE FEED:      
Sunday, Sept. 24, 10:30-11 p.m. (ET) Å] Galaxy 11/Transponder 15K (12003 MHz,
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