Massey, Prestone/FRAM team get hot during Saturday qualifying, will try to take Countdown points lead from the eighth starting spot

October 06

READING, Pa. (Oct. 6, 2012) - Spencer Massey got a little hot on a cool fall afternoon Saturday during NHRA Full Throttle Series qualifying at Maple Grove Raceway.

Massey's yellow Prestone/FRAM Top Fuel dragster had an orange fireball trailing behind it on the third qualifying run and lost 5 crucial points for putting oil on the race track.

"You don't see something like that out of his Prestone dragster very often," Massey said. "Obviously it's a huge concussion when something like that happens. It's just one of those things, it's Top Fuel racing and this dragster has nitro in it. It's going to do that sometimes."

He was able to find the positive side in the situation.

"We didn't really want that to happen, but we're just glad it wasn't during race day. If it's going to blow up I'd rather have it do that in qualifying and not during eliminations."

Massey rebounded in the fourth qualifying session with a 3.778-second pass at 326 mph, which was just one hundredth off of his best qualifying effort of the weekend, a 3.763-second lap run on Friday evening, the eighth best elapsed time in the sixteen car field.

"We went right down the track during the final session," he said. "It wasn't the quickest but it was a good solid lap that has us ready for Sunday. We wanted to make sure everything was working correctly on the car and it did what we wanted it to."

Massey will be the lone Don Schumacher Racing dragster on his side of the ladder. His two teammates Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown qualified third and seventh, respectively.

Brown is currently the Top Fuel points leader in NHRA's Countdown to the Championship. Massey trails Brown by 24 points, more than one round of racing behind, entering Sunday's eliminations.

"We just have to think of tomorrow like it's any other day and go up there and not beat ourselves," he said. "We just need to go rounds and have some fun and hopefully that will lead us to the winner's circle."

TOP FUEL
No. 1 qualifier: David Grubnic (Kalitta Racing), 3.728 seconds, 327.11 mph
First round opponent: Khalid alBalooshi (Al-Anabi Racing)

Spencer Massey, Prestone/FRAM dragster
Qualifying: No. 3
FRIDAY QUALIFYING
Session 1: 3.807 sec., 324.90 mph
Session 2: 3.763, 321.12
SATURDAY QUALIFYING
Session 3: 4.497, 155.27
Session 4: 3.778, 326.08

EVENT SCHEDULE
Sunday: Championship eliminations, 11 a.m.

ON ESPN2
(Times are ET)
SUNDAY: Qualifying, 6 p.m.
SUNDAY: Eliminations, 7 p.m.

WEATHER.COM FORECAST
SUNDAY: High 50; 70 percent chance of light rain

UPCOMING FULL THROTTLE EVENTS
Oct. 25-28, Big O Tires NHRA Nationals, Las Vegas
Nov. 8-11, Auto Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, Pomona, Calif.

About FRAM
FRAM Group LLC has its headquarters in Perrysburg, Ohio. Its leading automotive care products include FRAM® oil, air, transmission and fuel filters; Autolite® spark plugs and ignition wire sets; Prestone® antifreeze/coolant and car care products; and Holts® car care. It maintains R&D capabilities in the United States and Europe and has a manufacturing footprint in 10 countries worldwide.

About Don Schumacher Racing
Don Schumacher Racing, headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., consists of seven professional NHRA teams: in Top Fuel, the U.S. Army dragster driven by seven-time world champion Tony Schumacher, the FRAM/Prestone dragster of Spencer Massey and the Matco Tools dragster of Antron Brown; and in Funny Car, 2011 NHRA Funny Car champion Matt Hagan in the Aaron's Dream Machine/Mopar Dodge Charger R/T, Valvoline NextGen Dodge piloted by Jack Beckman, the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge of Ron Capps and the Service Central Dodge of Johnny Gray. DSR has won 195 NHRA national event titles and nine world championships.

Follow Don Schumacher Racing at ShoeRacing.com, on Twitter at @shoeracing and Facebook.com/shoeracing.

- DSR -