Cannon No. 9 in E'town qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
K&N Filters NHRA SuperNationals - Round 8 of 23
Old Bridge Township Raceway Park - Englishtown, N.J.
Saturday, May 17, 2003

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501, cell 203-243-2438

CANNON TAKE NO. 9 SPOT IN E'TOWN QUALIFYING

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (May 17, 2003) -- "We're making progress," said a smiling
Scotty Cannon of his performance in the final round of qualifying today in
his Oakley Funny Car. Only two qualifying sessions were held this weekend,
as two sessions were rained out on Friday. His first lap today was an OK
pass of 5.065/263.92. But it was the final run that demonstrated crew chief
Phil Shuler and the team's determination to put their struggles behind them,
as Cannon pulled off a solid 4.872/304.46 pass to put him No. 9 on the
charts.

"We changed the way we were running after testing the car at Indy on
Sunday," Cannon said. "From our point of view we had two runs to look at
before we made this last run. Actually, the car was running good early;
we're just having trouble keeping the motor happy. The short times are
better than they were or as good as they've been running to the 1000-foot
(mark) all year. We're going to work in the motor department, see if we can
keep the motor happy and alive. It should run good. It' s showing promise
for once, so we're moving in the right direction.

"We were told to treat every run like a test run; swing for the fence every
time. That's the way our sponsors do it, that's the way we're doing it. And
that's what we're going to do."

Cannon will meet his Oakley teammate Gary Scelzi (No. 8) in the first round
of Funny Car eliminations of the K&N Filters SuperNationals tomorrow for
their first meeting since Scelzi joined the Oakley team for 2003.  "That's
one way to get an Oakley car to go to the next round," said Cannon. "There's
a positive to anything. Someone's got to win; someone's got to lose. We know
for sure there will be an Oakley car in the second round. We'll have lots of
fun doing it; we'll go out there and see if we can kick old Scelzi's butt."

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