Mopar Saturday Qualifiyng Notes

 <<Brainerd Saturday Notes.doc>> 







Winston Drag Racing Series           Contact David
Harris-DavidHarris@ClearChannel.com
Brainerd International Raceway	                      Mopar Motorsports NHRA
Representative
Saturday Qualifying Notes		                 Mobile: (704)
756-9301/Office: (704) 455-3500

Alderman & Osborne Ready for Eliminations

BRAINERD, Minn. (Aug. 18, 2001) - Darrell Alderman, driver of the Mopar
Parts Dodge Neon R/T, collected the 11th-qualifying slot for tomorrow's NHRA
national event at Brainerd International Raceway.

The three-time Winston Pro Stock World Champion drove to a 6.974-second
elapsed timed at 197.88 mph during the third session, setting up a round one
match up with Ron Krisher.

"We made a couple of nice runs today," said Alderman, who has appeared in
two finals this season. "The track isn't in very good shape and we rattled
the tires. It also shook pretty hard on our last run and hurt the elapsed
time."

Teammate Mark Osborne took his Hemi-powered Dodge Neon R/T to the
15th-qualifying position with a 7.000-second pass at 198.12 mph, the third
fastest speed of the weekend. Osborne will face off against Mike Edwards in
the first round of eliminations.

"The car was a lot better on those last two runs," Osborne said. "We are
still having tire shake at about half track. We should be okay for tomorrow
though."

Morgan Barely Misses

It was a real heartbreaker for Larry Morgan, driver of the Dodge Motorsports
Neon R/T. Morgan ran a 7.002-second elapsed time at 196.96 mph during the
fourth-qualifying session, which was .002-seconds away from making the
16-car field.

"We made what I thought was a perfect run," Morgan said. "We thought there
was a little left in it after the third session, but the heat on the track
probably hurt us there. We've been doing a lot of work to try to dial this
new Neon in."

Skuza Sneaks In

Dean Skuza and the Mopar Parts Dodge R/T squeaked into Nitro Funny Car field
in the 16th position with a 5.008-second lap at 299.93 mph. Skuza will line
up against No. 1 qualifier Whit Bazemore in round one.


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Mopar Saturday Notes
Page Two

"We had a bad pressure plate on our first three runs," said Skuza, who was
not qualified heading into the final session after smoking the tires in the
first three rounds. "We knew we had something wrong because we never smoke
the tires three times in a row. We made those changes and just wanted to get
down the track, so we were pretty conservative in our set up."

Co-crew chief John Stewart also commented.

"We had to make some drastic changes to get down the track," Stewart said.
"We weren't trying anything fancy because we just wanted to get in. We'll
look at it tomorrow and go after it."

Nickens Fails to Qualify

Bo Nickens, who drove a Mopar-powered Dodge R/T this weekend, failed to
crack the 16-car Pro Stock field. The Conroe, Texas resident, who is the son
of car owner David Nickens, ran a 7.104-second elapsed time at 195.31 mph in
the third session. 

Nickens shut off during his fourth pass.

"We got behind this weekend and couldn't catch up," Nickens commented.
"We're making decent runs, but they haven't been good enough. We're happy
with what we learned this weekend though."


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