"It has been a long time since our last victory," said Bernstein, "and our team was hungry for a win. We pulled together today, we were motivated, and Rob (Flynn, crew chief) made great tuning calls. Driving the car was effortless. I knew that every round the car was just going to go down the track and it would be straight and competitive. It gave us a lot of confidence."

Bernstein qualified sixth at Virginia Motorsports Park with a 3.832/313.15.

In the opening round of eliminations, Bernstein took the round victory over Scott Weis. Bernstein clocked a 3.842-second elapsed time (at 313.58 mph), nearly as strong as his qualifying effort, as Weis broke after the burnout.

"We were third pair down the track," explained Bernstein. "We watched as two of the cars qualified in the top half of the field smoked the tires in the lane most crew chiefs had picked as the preferable lane. At the last minute, Rob (Flynn, crew chief) swapped lanes and our Budweiser/Lucas Oil dragster went right down Broadway.

"It's always a relief to get a round under your belt."

In the second round, the Budweiser/Lucas Oil team got another bye run when Scott Palmer was unable to return after suffering serious engine damage in round one. Again, the Kenny Bernstein team ran a very competitive 3.871/308.85.

"It's too bad Scott wasn't able to return," said Bernstein. "We know his team would have liked to make a good race out of the round. We were able to relax a little on this run, but we've got our work cut out for us against my friend Cory McClenathan in the semis. He's got a really tough team."

Bernstein's transfer to the semis moved him to sixth in point standings.

In the semis, Bernstein was spectacular out of the starting gate with a .023-second reaction time. Both drivers were making a lot of horsepower down the track until Brandon took the lead, streaking across the finish line with a 3.851/313.66, while McClenathan's engine erupted into a ball of fire at the stripe. McClenathan was close behind with a 3.902/290.82.

"This was a huge round win for us," said Bernstein. "We're going to the finals and I think we've got some good mojo going."

Bernstein pulled to the starting line in the money round to face Antron Brown. When the Christmas tree turned green, Bernstein was on his way to victory, straight and smooth, while Brown struggled with loss of traction at the hit of the throttle. Bernstein got the win light with a 3.844/307.09 to Brown's 9.009/75.99.

"This gives us a lot of motivation going forward," said Bernstein. "But I just can't say enough about the whole team and the positive attitude everyone has kept, especially my dad. We just kept at the grind and we knew eventually we were going to knock down that door and get the win.

"When we won the round against Cory, who has been running fantastic, we knew we had a very good chance to win against Antron. It's been a long time since our last victory and we've got two weeks to savor our victory before Las Vegas."

Bernstein scored eight runner-up finishes between victories. Ironically in the beginning of his career he claimed eight wins in his first nine final round appearances.

"In the first few years of our career it seemed like if we made it to the final round we were a shoe-in for the victory. Lately, we just haven't been able to get the win light. Finally, today we put all the pieces together in our fifth final round appearance this year.

Bernstein is now tied with the legendary Shirley Muldowney with 18 career Top Fuel victories.

Notably, Bernstein moved from seventh to fifth in NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel point standings.

Budweiser Lager Lesson: Budweiser is lagered over beechwood chips for nearly three weeks and "kraeusened" to produce natural carbonation, resulting in our signature crisp and refreshing taste.

Courtesy of Susie Arnold