Troxel sets career-bests on Friday in Texas, qualifies No. 2

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 21 of 23
O'REILLY NHRA FALL NATIONALS
Texas Motorplex
Dallas, Texas
Race Dates: Oct. 7-9, 2005



DALLAS (Oct. 7, 2005) - Melanie Troxel, driver of the Skull Gear/Torco Race
Fuels Top Fuel dragster, became officially the quickest and fastest female
driver in NHRA history with her 330.31-mph pass in today's first qualifying
session for the O'Reilly Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex, which was
top speed for that round.

She surpassed Shirley Muldowney's previous fastest speed of 327.66 mph, set
in 2003. 

Troxel had already established the quickest pass by a woman in NHRA racing
in Reading, Pa., of 4.509 seconds, which she re-set tonight in the second
session by posting a new career-best of 4.458 seconds.

This last pass placed her second in the field behind Doug Herbert, who
recorded a 4.441-second lap, with two more qualifying rounds remaining.

"Honestly, there are a lot of passes like that that you can't necessarily
tell them apart from other really good passes," Troxel said of her speed
run. 

"Obviously, the car was on a great pass, but I think my focus was a little
bit more on how the car was handling since we struggled with that a little
bit and we got to scale the front end of the car this morning.

"We've just made a lot of little subtle changes, but they've all added up
and that felt like an entirely different car. It went perfectly straight
down the course. Of course, there's no such thing as perfect, but that's
about as good a hookup as you could hope to get.

"Honestly, we're happier with the fact that the car is handling well than
the speed mark. 

"It's a joy driving this car right now," she said. "It's a credit to (crew
chief) Richard Hogan, the entire Skull Gear/Torco Race Fuels team, and (team
owner) Don Schumacher."