“Hot Rod” Fuller has many reasons to dislike the new Countdown to the Championship format. In fact, he’s got 174 of them.

That’s how many points Fuller surrendered when the points were readjusted for the second phase of the championship.

Timing is everything for Fuller and earlier this week, the current point leader announced a marketing partnership for 2008 with CAT. In a sport where marketing value ensures survival of a team, Fuller sees a greater value under the former system.

“You look at a guy like me that has been the No. 1 car all year long and the top car should get the top exposure,” Fuller said. “I didn’t get a lot of exposure because they were concentrating on the six through twelve cars. Now that we are down to eight, the focus is on the Countdown itself.

“There’s a lot of things I like about the Countdown and a lot of things I don’t. They could at least spread it out a bit and talk about the points leader and the guys who are winning races. I’ll be waiting to see how all of this pans out and to see what kind of exposure we get. To see how this second cut-off deal is. I’m not a big fan of this second cut-off deal. I don’t think a championship should be decided on two races.”

Fuller said he sees the Countdown promotions as being more self-serving towards the NHRA more so than the drivers they are entrusted to promote.

“I haven’t seen anything about Hot Rod Fuller leading the Countdown,” Fuller said. “So I lead 17 races? I don’t have much to show for it.”

Fuller said to lose a championship after leading the points for much of the season based on the outcome of two races is not only a tough pill to swallow, but equally difficult to explain to a sponsor.

“The tough part is these are Top Fuel dragsters and they have mechanical parts,” said Fuller. “You have a magneto blow out … lose a spark plug …or have a leak. You can imagine lose a championship over that and that’s a hard thing to take.

“I’m for drag racing and I’m for the fans. If that’s what the drag racing fans want, we’ll win it whatever way they want it.”

Indy's semi-final loss to Dixon left him in third trailing Schumacher by three points.

In all three of Fuller’s elimination rounds, he raced a Countdown to the Championship contestant. That’s the way he preferred to do battle.

“I like controlling my own destiny,” Fuller said. “I’d rather do that than worry about someone else having to win a race for us. The best person to take care of our dirty work is us.”

This weekend's event gives Fuller a personal measure of control because of his preference to race at Memphis Motorsports Park. He's seeks regaining the point lead he's held from Topeka until Indy.

“If you had to pick a race on the schedule that I get really excited about, it’s Memphis," said Fuller. "It was the site of my first victory, we qualified No. 1 last year, and it’s close to where I grew up. It’s a fun town and they have fun fans at Memphis. You’ve got Beale St. and all the great food and I love hot weather. We expect to win and get our points lead back. It’s nice to have the pressure of Indy behind us and to go race.”

Two years ago at Memphis Motorsports Park, Fuller knocked off a tire-smoking Schumacher to collect his first career NHRA Top Fuel victory with a run of 4.612 second at 313.02 mph.