Stevens qualifies ninth in hot Chicago

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 10 of 23
CARQUEST NHRA NATIONALS
Route 66 Raceway
Joliet, Ill.
Race Dates: June 10-12, 2005


JOLIET, Ill. (June 11, 2005) - Under hot and humid conditions at Route 66
Raceway, Richie Stevens Jr. stepped it up today and qualified ninth for the
CARQUEST NHRA Nationals Pro Stock field in the Team Mopar/Valspar
HEMI-powered Dodge Stratus R/T.

He has now qualified for every event so far in the 2005 NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing Series. He's qualified in the top half four times, including a No. 1
in Phoenix, and six times in the bottom half.

His 6.802/203.31 pass in the heat of the day was the best of the three of
four qualifying sessions he made it down the track and pits him against
Allen Johnson's Mopar entry in the first round of eliminations on Sunday.

Friday's runs included a 6.818/202.21, and a 6.814/202.55 in the night
session, which was not his best effort under the more desirable weather
conditions. He missed the third session today when a water pump leak was
discovered.

"It feels good," said the New Orleans native who is seeking his first win in
his first season with Don Schumacher Racing, and in particular at
Schumacher's home track. "With all of our bad luck this morning, and the bad
run we made last night, it feels good. We made a pretty good run just now, I
think. We didn't get into the top half, but at least we're up there in No.
9. 

"I made a screwed up run last night. I staged a little deep and scrubbed off
some time on the ET and that was a big part of it. And this morning we found
a leak in the water pump. It was just one of those deals.

"I'm looking forward to a good day tomorrow. I'm just glad that we got to
make a good decent run going into tomorrow. It feels a lot better," he said
of the final pass, which was the third quickest of that round. "We're a lot
more confident. 

"One Mopar car is going into the next round. Hopefully it's me and hopefully
we can step it up. I think we still have room for improvement. We'll get
this run downloaded on the computer and look at the graph. I think we can
run a 6.70 or something like that, so we should be all right."