Scelzi No. 5 in Atlanta qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2004 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
ROUND 7 OF 23
SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT NHRA SOUTHERN NATIONALS
ATLANTA DRAGWAY
COMMERCE, GA.
RACE DATES:  May 14-16, 2004
COMMERCE, Ga. (May 15, 2004) - Except for losing traction at the hit of the
throttle in the third qualifying session, Gary Scelzi credits his
HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge Stratus Funny Car with three stout qualifying
rounds this weekend, placing him No. 5 in the field, with the 4.828/319.39
pass set on Friday night.

In today's final qualifying session, the three-time Top Fuel champion posted
the fourth quickest elapsed time of that session (4.871 seconds) at a speed
of 310.70 mph, slower than expected.

"We burned it up a little bit at the end, I think," he said of that final
pass. "Our coil quit or something and it put out two holes at the finish.
That's why I didn't run any speed. Basically, for me, it went down the race
track three out of four times this weekend. And that's what we need to start
getting back in the rhythm.

"That will come in play again tomorrow," he added, referring to similar
track and weather conditions expected during eliminations. "The track
temperature was 125 degrees and I'm sure we had one of the quickest 60-ft.
increments out there, so that's big, because our car is normally three
hundredths behind at 60 feet, then it makes it up from 300 feet on. Now
we've got to get our speed back and make this thing continue not to smoke
the tires."

Scelzi will meet Jim Head in the first round of eliminations on Sunday,
which begin at 11 a.m.