Skuza, Wilson Ready for Sunday
Mopar Motorsports NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series O¹Reilly Summer Nationals Notes & Quotes June 1, 2002 TELEVISION TIMES: (ALL TIMES EASTERN) QUALIFYING: Sat., June 1; 8:30-10:30 p.m.; ESPN2 REPEAT: Sun., June 2; 5:30-7:30 a.m.; ESPN2 FINAL ROUND: Sun., June 2; 7:30 10:00 p.m.; ESPN2 REPEAT: Tues., June 4; 2:00-4:30 p.m.; ESPN2 JOLIET, Ill. -- Mopar Motorsports NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series teams completed the final day of qualifying for this weekend¹s Chicagoland Dodge Dealers NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway. NOTABLE: Track conditions were extremely warm as temperatures reached the upper 80¹s today at Route 66 Raceway. None of the Mopar factory drivers improved upon their qualifying positions. The following are notes and quotes from today¹s qualifying activity. DEAN SKUZA, driver of the Mopar Parts Dodge Stratus R/T Dean Skuza has been very consistent this weekend. In the heat of the day, Skuza drove his Mopar Parts Dodge Stratus R/T to the second quickest pass of the third session at 5.00 seconds. Skuza collected the third-qualifying position with a solid 4.832-second elapsed time at 312.86 mph, despite running on seven cylinders. ³It¹s been a good weekend for us,² Skuza said. ³Tomorrow will be interesting though. Since today really won¹t have any bearing on how we set up the car up for tomorrow, it was a great testing session. We¹re going to look at some old notes from previous seasons and try to come up with what works.² Skuza, a two-time NHRA national event winner, will face off against Tim Wilkerson in round one. GENE WILSON, driver of the Mopar Parts Dodge Neon R/T Gene Wilson maintained his seventh-qualified position with a 6.882-second pass at 200.56 mph. The Mopar Parts Dodge Neon R/T driver takes on Topeka (Kan.) first-round opponent and fellow NHRA Pro Stock rookie Mark Whisnant in the first round of eliminations. ³We¹re pretty happy with this weekend,² Wilson said. ³It sounds like tomorrow is going to be a different animal though. We have hot conditions today, which create a lot of tire spin, but we¹re expecting low 70¹s tomorrow. The car will have a completely different set up for tomorrow.² Wilson¹s 6.927-second run was the fourth quickest of that session. LARRY MORGAN, driver of the Mopar Parts Dodge Neon R/T Larry Morgan and the blue Mopar Parts Dodge Neon R/T started off well, but just missed the top 16. The Newark, Ohio resident logged a 6.909-second lap 199.82 mph, falling .006 of second short. ³We started off the weekend very well,² said Morgan, who posted that lap in round one. ³We tuned it up a bit yesterday and it spun right through the clutch. ³We now have Terry Adams tuning on the car and he¹s going to make a big difference over here. I¹m real excited about Columbus. ³I also want to say thank you to all the Chicagoland Dodge Dealers for their support of this weekend¹s race,² Morgan stated. DARRELL ALDERMAN, driver of the Mopar Parts Dodge Neon R/T The heat of the day was too much to overcome for Darrell Alderman¹s Mopar Parts Dodge Neon R/T. The three-time POWERade Pro Stock World Champion missed only his second show of the season after clocked a weekend best elapsed time of 6.926 seconds at 199.73 mph during the fourth session. The run was the fourth quickest of the session. ³Well, it didn¹t look real good when we started the day,² Alderman said. ³The track was just too hot to make a good run today. When you have a night session during the summer, you need to make it count or you don¹t get in. We made our best run of the weekend in that last one. That¹s what happened to us this weekend.² -Dodge.com- David Harris, Cox Marketing Group Mopar Motorsports NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series davidh@coxmarketinggroup.com (704) 799-2114 office (704) 756-9301 - mobile