Vietnam Veterans/POW-MIA dragster driver Melanie Troxel won her second event of the year in her third final round appearance after a terrific pedaling job in the semifinals against Brandon Bernstein. Troxel was able to get to the finish line first after both cars smoked the tires right off the starting line and the pedal-fest was on. She had no idea how many times she stepped on and off the throttle.

"I'm going to guess three or four," said a smiling Troxel. "I don't know if that's right or not, everything happens so fast in there you don't really know what you're doing you're just reacting to the car. That was a crazy run, I could hear Brandon over there pedaling away and neither of us could get the car hooked up. Thankfully the belt stayed on it, that's the first time this weekend that it hasn't gone to the finish line with the pedal down. It's just our lucky round and we're happy to be going on to the final."

Troxel defeated a resurgent Doug Herbert in the final round with a 4,728 at 313.22 mph to Herbert's 4.901 at 290.57 mph.

"My main goal for the rest of the season was to have a win going out of Top Fuel," said Troxel afterward. "It was a big deal to me too, for the guys on the team. I started working with them about the middle of the season and there a great group of guys and they've worked really hard in not quite perfect situations and they were really overdue for a win. They've been together for quite awhile and there a good enough team that they absolutely deserve to have a win.

"It's nice to get a win in for myself but probably more importantly to get in a win for them and for us as a group.

"I'm becoming more and more disappointed with not making the Countdown every week," Troxel added. "But I stand by what I said in the beginning; you don't ask your teammate to take a dive for you. If you can't earn you way there you don't deserve it. Our destiny was in our hands and we weren't getting the job done at that point. It's unfortunate that we turned it around right before the Countdown and didn't quite get things turned around to make it in.

"We're going to make the best of the situation and we're going to go out and play spoiler for the rest of the year. Without the pressure of the point's battle we're going to go out and have fun and try and go out and win every race."