Stevens Jr. looking good in Vegas, qualifies No. 4

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 5 of 23
NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals
THE STRIP AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Race Date: April 7-9, 2006

LAS VEGAS (April 8, 2006) - Heading into this weekend's NHRA
SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway,
Richie Stevens Jr. was hoping to get the Team Mopar/Valspar Dodge
Stratus R/T back on track by laying down four consistent Pro Stock
qualifying runs. The New Orleans native did just that, as he put himself
solidly in the No. 4 spot with a 6.790-second run at 202.42 mph.

Stevens narrowly missed the pole by three-thousandths of a second, and
eventually dropped to the No. 4 position when two other drivers posted
identical elapsed times but edged Stevens with a faster speed in the
highly-competitive Pro Stock field.

"We could easily have been No. 2," he said, "but we lost it by speed. Warren
(Johnson) and Erica (Enders) got us on the mile-per-hour, and had we gotten
another thousandth (of a second) we would have been No. 2. But, I'm happy
with it; it shows we are making some progress. We needed some momentum and a
good string of runs."

The passes included a 6.797/202.67, a 6.790/202.42, a 6.806/202.39 and a
6.847/202.21.

The Strip is quickly becoming one of Stevens' favorite tracks. "We tested
great out here in February, had some success in the Pro Stock Showdown, and
now we put down four great runs when we've been struggling lately. Now, we
are back here and we've got a good car heading into tomorrow. We've
definitely shown that we are getting our program sorted out."

For the fourth time in five events, Stevens qualified in the top half of the
field. "I don't know if lane choice will be a factor, but, regardless, we'll
have preference if we need it," he said. "We face our fellow Mopar car
(Allen Johnson) in the first round, which is good and bad, because a Mopar
car will be going to the second round, but that doesn't mean it will be us.
I hope it's us, we need some round wins. A few guys in the top 10 didn't
qualify for the race, so we have a chance to make some moves," Stevens
added, who is No. 11 in NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Pro Stock points.