Cannon qualifies No. 8; Scelzi DNQs

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 4 of 23
SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Saturday, April 5, 2003


FINAL QUALIFYING

SCOTTY CANNON QUALIFIES IN TOP HALF OF FIELD FOR FIRST TIME THIS SEASON

LAS VEGAS (April 5, 2003) -- Scotty Cannon qualified in the top half of the
field for the first time this season, claiming the No. 8 spot with his
4.859-second run at 321.73 mph, which he established yesterday. In today's
first run Cannon smoked the tires, slowing to a 5.973/158.46 pass. In the
final run an errant piece of rubber bouncing around the engine compartment
produced an 11.321/85.32 pass.

"It's better than 16th," smiled Cannon. "We moved up eight spots in the last
three races; I guess you can look at it that way. I'm proud of my guys.

"We went out there in the first session this morning and the track bit
everybody a little bit. We were trying to improve on our .85. Only one car
went better than .85, so the chances of us doing it were probably slim to
none. But, we had to see what the track could stand for heat conditions
tomorrow."

A two-inch piece of rubber hose was the culprit in the final run: "And then
we went up there tonight and we just had it jacked up good," said Cannon. "A
piece of rubber came off the hose that goes between the body latch and the
tank . If anybody was watching my guys on the starting line, they'd have
seen them giving me hand signals to turn the pump off, turn some different
stuff on because the fuel pressure was real, real low. So then it kind of
cleared up. You do a burnout on one fuel pump, so they told me to put two
pumps on to up the pressure, so when I did it blew it blew the piece of
trash that was hung on this little valve out from under it. Luckily, it got
hung on another valve behind it and it kind of confused it. That really
wouldn't have hurt the way the car would have run, but by then the motor had
gotten so hot from lacking fuel during the burnout it didn't have any chance
of making it, so it's a good thing we found it. It didn't take us too long.
We'll get it. That's one of the normal little gremlins that can get you
right there. Maybe if those things keep happening, we can just weed those
out rather than all the big things the first three races. I feel really good
about tomorrow. We get to race."

Cannon will face Dean Skuza in the first round of eliminations tomorrow.

GARY SCELZI, OAKLEY DODGE STRATUS R/T, failed to qualify for the first time
this year. In his final attempt this afternoon, in the same left lane in
which he experienced an explosion yesterday, he lost traction half track and
hazed the tires, resulting in a 5.515/192.96 pass, good enough only for No.
19.