Oakley's Scotty Cannon Likes Bristol

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Mac Tools Thunder Valley NHRA Nationals
Round 6 of 23
Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway
Race Date: April 25-27, 2003

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501, cell 203-243-2438

OAKLEY'S SCOTTY CANNON A BRISTOL FAN

BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 21, 2003) -- Scotty Cannon, the 1999 NHRA Rookie of
the Year, has history at the Bristol Dragway. He's only raced here twice
with the NHRA, in 2001 and 2002, but he's won a number of IHRA races on this
circuit in the hills of Tennessee. A win here this weekend in the sixth
round of the 23-event NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series in his Oakley Funny
Car would suit him just fine.

"I'm not sure who's won the most races in Bristol in the track's history.
It's probably not me, but I'm pretty close," says Cannon, who owns a
home-cooking family restaurant in Lyman, S.C. "I've won a lot of races here
and I have a lot of fan support. I also have a lot of family that comes up
here. It's like home to me. And even though the track is refurbished and
it's not IHRA any longer, it doesn't matter. It's still between those two
mountains and I'd love nothing better than to win here or Atlanta or both."

The NHRA pro teams head to Commerce, Ga., the following weekend for the
Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, for the
series' seventh round.

The Mohawk-wearing Cannon has qualified for each race so far this season and
has won one round, but he is still struggling to improve his car's
performance. After making a late decision last year to continue in Funny Car
racing with the Don Schumacher Racing team, Cannon's been working hard to
get his all-new team to gel. "We started from nothing last November," he
says. "We're working night and day. Nobody is sleeping much at all trying to
make this thing go. We're just fortunate that we qualified in all those
races where we've run so bad. Everybody said, You need some luck. I said, I
think I've used all my luck up the first three races qualifying 15th or 16th
when I shouldn't have even qualified."

The team, led by crew chief Phil Shuler, is making headway after solving
some major issues beginning with the fourth race in Las Vegas, where Cannon
qualified No. 8. "Are we catching up?" asks Cannon. "I would like to think
so, because we've qualified for every race. I'm not making excuses or trying
to sugar-coat a bunch of stuff. We're still 15 or 20 runs behind. We made
some wrong calls at the wrong time at the last race in Houston for the track
conditions as they were there. Going into Bristol we're going to change some
stuff. Not just off-the-wall stuff, but we're going to tune for Bristol.

"We know how Bristol is. Bristol is usually pretty strong; the starting line
is usually pretty stout. Down track the first run is usually weak. Bristol
is going to be smooth, not like Houston where it was bumpy and upset the
car. The asphalt in Bristol is probably going to be a little slicker,
depending on the weather."

Cannon is a fan favorite wherever he goes. "To all my fans out there, we're
not giving up," is his message to them. "We're working really hard. Sooner
or later we're going to have to hit it exactly right."

Nitro qualifying is scheduled for Friday, April 25, at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET,
and 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 26. Final eliminations begin at 12
noon ET on Sunday, April 27.

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