Buddy Hull doesn’t make haphazard moves. His steps are deliberate and thoughtful. Maybe some don’t understand why the Top Fuel newcomer competed in the season opener at Pomona, then sat out the next three events and is returning now with his sharp-looking, newly wrapped VertexRoofers.com Dragster.

It’s because he has a carefully crafted plan. And things aren’t always what they appear to be. 

Take, for example, Hull’s Friday qualifying pass. He didn’t reach the finish line under full power. But that was exactly what he had planned to do, even though it left him outside the field of 16, along with Cam Ferré. That was a planned shutoff, mentor and tuner (and Funny Car owner-driver-crew chief) Tim Wilkerson said. Hull knew he had two more chances Saturday to qualify and favorable weather conditions to help. 

Some might question why Hull simply hasn’t come out to the racetracks since mid-February, just to get seat time and grab some qualifying money. That’s not Hull’s approach. 

“You can't just get out there. You have to go out there with intentions,” he said. “If your goal is to qualify, just qualify, you're defeated. You got beat before you started.”

Some might guess that as an independent team owner and a first-year one at that that he doesn’t have an adequate supply of parts. That’s not the case. 

“We have more parts than any independent team out here,” Hull said. “But, you know, it's my life. I overkill everything. It's what I do. I want to be competitive. I don't want to be the guy that comes out here and [my opponent] says, ’Oh, we got Buddy first round. OK, all right, no big deal. The car will run a .90.’ No. We want to have a 3.75 to a 3.85 race car that can do it time and time again and be competitive. That's what we want to do. 

“We want to have nice equipment, nice parts, good crew, good tuner and come out here [and have opponents say,] ‘OK. They are to be respected. They have good stuff. We can't just go up there and take them lightly,’” he said. 

That’s why after this weekend, Hull will skip eight more events (Charlotte, Richmond, Epping, Bristol, Norwalk, Denver, Sonoma, and Seattle). He’ll return at Topeka, then bypass the Brainerd race and become a little more visible at Indianapolis and during the Countdown. He plans to enter the St. Louis, Dallas, and Las Vegas races this fall.

“That's our big push at the end of the year,” Hull said. “That's our big push because by then we'll have tons of parts in the trailer. It takes that long to really build up the parts.”

It will take a little bit longer after Saturday’s second and final qualifying run. He made the 16-car field, bumping in to anchor it at No. 16 with a 3.916-second pass. The unpleasant news is that his engine detonated as he approached the finish line, and a fireball meant his VertexRofers.com Dragster crew would have extra work overnight.  

But his long-range plan remains intact. He said, “Going to Phoenix [for the PRO-sponsored preseason warm-up] and going to Pomona, literally, we use that as our training opportunity. So now we've got some reps and you know, we’ll always continue to improve but now we have a clue,” he said. “We're taking the time in the shop [at Alvarado, Texas, just southwest of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex] to completely take the car apart and put the car back together. We're in a much better place. And I'm aggressive, so I'll continue to force improvement.”

Wilkerson told Hull when he sold him the equipment in the off-season that he would provide guidance if Hull assembled a capable team. He did, and they have been practicing procedures. Hull said, “The key is repetition. Just being around the car, touching the car, looking at it. It sounds crazy, but the more you're around something, the more it becomes part of you.”

Hull is a Central Illinois native who is a Texas transplant with offices for his Vertex Roofing & General Contractors business at Frisco, northeast of Dallas, and Alvarado. So he doesn’t have to special bond to Houston Raceway Park like Pro Stock racers Rodger Brogdon and Erica Enders do. Just the same, he laments the racetrack’s plan to close soon.

This facility, he said, is special to us. I live in Texas, and so Dallas and Houston, obviously, have got to be important to us,” he said. “Last year I ran the final race in Atlanta. I raced Top Fuel last year in Atlanta before they shut that one down. I don't have a lot of memories at this track. I've only been here a total of well, this is my third time in my entire life, but it's a Texas racetrack. So to me, it's important. And it's important that they either try to keep this one open, which doesn't look like it's going to happen, or get another one built so we can have Houston back on the schedule.”