Scelzi No. 5 in Friday Gainesville qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2004 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 3 of 23
NHRA GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE (FLA.) RACEWAY
RACE DATES: MARCH 19-21, 2004

SCELZI IN NO. 5 IN FRIDAY QUALIFYING

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 19, 2004) - On a hotter day than expected in
Northern Florida, Gary Scelzi qualified No. 5 on a smooth yet difficult
track surface at Gainesville Raceway in his HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge
Stratus Funny Car. In today's first of four qualifying rounds, in which no
car broke the 4-second mark, Scelzi took the No. 2 position with a
5.037/278.81. 

In the second qualifying session, he expected to improve his position, but
found himself dropping into fifth. The earlier pass stood, as the
5.249/212.01 he posted in the second round was slower.

"I thought we could run a mid- to low 4.90. I got it out of the groove and
there is no groove here," he said of the second pass. "You have to be real
careful. The car ran pretty well, it picked up early, better than our 5.03.
Then it spun the tire a little bit, got me out of the groove and that's all
it took. 

"We're Ok, we're in good shape. We're playing with some things. The tests in
Phoenix under horrible conditions really helped pay off, because these
conditions are very similar. We're glad that we learned a lot in Phoenix
testing, so we should be good tomorrow."

Asked if this is a 330-mph track, he responded: "Absolutely not. We will be
lucky if anyone goes 300 here."