LAS VEGAS -- Brandon Bernstein battled through a weekend of wrestling with the flu to score his fifth final four showing of the season at the Las Vegas Nationals.

“We were fortunate to have Dr. Carision, a Las Vegas physician, on duty at the NHRA event over the weekend,” explained an ailing Bernstein. “She was awesome, checking in with us and giving us some intravenous fluids.

“When I woke up Sunday morning, I told myself, ‘We’ve got to go out and win this race.’ The only good part about Sunday was the time we were in the race car because when the engine fired, the adrenaline started pumping. Between rounds we were doing everything we could to stay hydrated and strong enough to fight this virus.”

Brandon was the No. 6 qualifier at “The Strip” at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a 3.853/317.27.

In the opening round of eliminations, Bernstein squared off against Bob Vandergriff, Jr. who lost traction right off the starting line. The Budweiser/Lucas Oil dragster made a trouble-free run (3.890/310.98 vs. 6.710/102.81) to transfer to the quarterfinals to face Antron Brown.

“Rob (Flynn, crew chief) did a good job on the tune-up on that first run,” said Bernstein. “It’s tough on the crew chiefs because it’s hotter than we’ve seen it all weekend so they have to tip toe around their combinations to find out how much the track can hold.”

It was Bernstein who scored the second round win in a close contest with Brown. Bernstein was first out of the gate with a .053-second reaction time and first to the finish line with a 3.882/311.85 vs. Brown’s 3.894/311.34.

“We just want to go rounds,” said the ailing Bernstein. “And that was a big win for us. Antron is fourth in points just ahead of us, and we’re trying to work our way up the ladder.”

In the semifinals, the Budweiser/Lucas Oil team turned in another consistent performance,

3.898/311.41, but were edged out of the round victory by Spencer Massey’s 3.849/315.34 effort.

“Our team gets a tip of the hat for giving Spencer a run for his money and for doing a good job negotiating a tricky lane,” said Bernstein. “We were just on the wrong side of a good race.

But you can definitely see the results of our Budweiser/Lucas Oil team’s long hours of hard work.”

Bernstein remains fifth in NHRA point standings, and is just 22 points, approximately one round, out of fourth place.