Scelzi out in second round, hangs on to third in Funny Car points

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2004 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
ROUND 2 OF 23
CHECKER SCHUCK'S KRAGEN NHRA NATIONALS
FIREBIRD RACEWAY
CHANDLER, ARIZ.
RACE DATES: March 5-7, 2004


CHANDLER, Ariz. (March 7, 2004) - After defeating Ron Capps in the first
round of eliminations of the CSK NHRA Nationals at Firebird Raceway today,
Gary Scelzi looked to be en route to another strong result in the second of
23 events of the 2004 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

He earned lane choice in that round with a 4.938/307.79 lap compared to his
second-round opponent Phil Burkart Jr.'s 4.949/293.35 lap, which he used to
defeat John Force in the first round. But it was all she wrote, as Scelzi's
HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge struck the tires at 60 feet, then slowed to an
8.393-second elapsed time at 92.58 mph. Burkart was there for the taking
with a 5.024/292.77 pass, but the win light was his by a margin of victory
of 3.1482 seconds.

Scelzi maintains his No. 3 position in the NHRA Funny Car point standings
with 129 to leader (and winner of today's Funny Car event) Del Worsham's
186.

"The HEMI-powered Oakley has been slow early all weekend, but never in
trouble," said Scelzi. "We made a very minor change and all of a sudden it
became an animal. It went out there far enough to where it should have made
it and all of a sudden it just took the tire off it. We don't know why. It's
one of those things. Hot race tracks. We need to get better at it. We need
to figure out why and not make a habit of it. When a 5.05 beats you that's
pretty tough."

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