NHRA Top Fuel driver Rod Fuller and Firebird Raceway might just be the hottest combination since peanut butter and jelly. The Las Vegas-based driver of the CAT-sponsored dragster has won fifteen consecutive rounds of competition at Firebird.

“To me, Phoenix is the promise land,” said Fuller, who finished runner-up in the 2007 championship standings. “The last three times I’ve raced there we’ve won, so we have a great streak going on. Arizona is like a second home. We did really good in testing and we have a good combination for that race track. I’m very excited going into Phoenix.”

Fuller qualified 10th at the season-opening Winternationals two weeks ago with a time of 4.539 seconds. He advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to two-time champion Larry Dixon. Fuller clocked low elapsed time of the event at 4.494 seconds in the first round. It was the sixth low E.T. of the meet for Fuller.

NHRA Top Fuel driver Rod Fuller and Firebird Raceway might just be the hottest combination since peanut butter and jelly. The Las Vegas-based driver of the CAT-sponsored dragster has won fifteen consecutive rounds of competition at Firebird.

“To me, Phoenix is the promise land,” said Fuller, who finished runner-up in the 2007 championship standings. “The last three times I’ve raced there we’ve won, so we have a great streak going on. Arizona is like a second home. We did really good in testing and we have a good combination for that race track. I’m very excited going into Phoenix.”

Fuller qualified 10th at the season-opening Winternationals two weeks ago with a time of 4.539 seconds. He advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to two-time champion Larry Dixon. Fuller clocked low elapsed time of the event at 4.494 seconds in the first round. It was the sixth low E.T. of the meet for Fuller.

Last February, Fuller qualified his Valvoline dragster second at the CSK Nationals with a run of 4.471 seconds, 331.61 mph. He raced to his fourth career victory by knocking off Melanie Troxel in the final round for the second consecutive year. Fuller clocked three 4.4-second elapsed times during final eliminations. Fuller’s 331.61 mph speed remains the fastest of his career.

Fuller drove his Rob Flynn-tuned rail to a career-best second place finish last season. He collected three wins in six final rounds, four poles, four low E.T. of the race, one top speed of the race, and won the $100,000 Technicoat Shootout at the fall Las Vegas race. He also won a category-best 40 rounds of eliminations, three more than Brandon Bernstein.

“Based on Pomona, we feel like we have a really good car,” said Rob Flynn, Fuller’s crew chief. “We just need to make more runs to prove that. We want to qualify better and we were trying to do that in the fourth session (at Pomona) and we dropped a cylinder because the same setup ran low E.T. of the meet the next morning. Also the fact that we tested well at Phoenix allows us to be optimistic.”

Fuller clocked the quickest pass of 2008 preseason testing on Jan. 29 with a run of 4.468 seconds at 331.36 mph at Firebird International Raceway.

Fuller has qualified for 63 consecutive NHRA Top Fuel events. He hasn’t missed the cut since driving Top Fuel part time in 1996 (Houston). It is the second longest streak in Top Fuel (Tony Schumacher).

Fuller claimed the CSK Nationals Super Gas title in 2004 when he defeated Glen Smith in the final round. He has 13 career NHRA sportsmen victories in the Super Gas and Super Comp categories.