Bob Vandergriff is beginning to rebound from his unfortunate and awkward exit last spring from the Top Fuel scene. Josh Comstock, his close friend and primary sponsor, passed away suddenly, forcing Vandergriff to dissolve the team that showcased Leah Pritchett and Dave Connolly.

He’s back on track intermittently this season, rekindling his business skills – and making progress toward another thriving operation.

What brought Vandergriff back to the dragstrip, he said, “was a combination of things. One, we had all the stuff sitting here. If I didn’t use it, it was just going to rot. Second of all, Valvoline’s been a good partner of ours, and we put our heads together and came up with a business development program that really benefits both sides. They’ve given me a good incentive plan to really work my butt off and generate some business for them. In return for that, they’re going to support the race team. So this year we’re just kind of getting our feet wet. We’re looking at expanding our schedule next year. So we’re in negotiations to do that right now.”  

Vandergriff said choosing the Chevrolet Performance NHRA U.S. Nationals for this year’s limited schedule was a business decision rather than some sentimental tug: “We’re actually doing a big promotion between Walmart and Valvoline right now, trying to drive people into the Auto Center. On the hero cards is an offer to drive people into any Walmart Auto Center in Indiana and Kentucky right now. But we’re here because it’s part of a program, and obviously it’s U.S. Nationals, so it worked out good for both sides.”

Many might recall that Vandergriff had been marking time until he could step away from the seat of his dragster that he was regarding as a money pit. He promised he isn’t “un-retired” and said if he expands his schedule, he’s looking at 12 to 15 races next year –

but that he still has no desire to run 12-15 races. He said he’ll “put somebody back in the car. It just made sense on a limited schedule right now based on what we’re doing budget-wise, where it would be more effective to spend the money. It just made more sense for me just to drive it right now. But if we expand our schedule to 12 to 15 races next year, there’ll be somebody else in the car.”

Eventually that could be his nephew, Jordan Vandergriff. But he said the plan is to “start him out slow. We’re going to put him, if we do this next year and expand the schedule, we’ll put him in a A/Fuel car for a year or so, maybe even two years. We need to get him some laps and seat time, see how he progresses, and then we’ll look at moving him up into this. If we come back with a Top Fuel car next year, we’ll have somebody else, you know, that’s driven one before, in the seat.”