Troxel works her way into No. 12 in Gainesville qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 3 of 23
ACDelco NHRA GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE (FLA.) RACEWAY
Race Date: March 17-19, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 18, 2006) - NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Top Fuel points leader Melanie Troxel faced a scare in qualifications for
the NHRA Gatornationals today, but ultimately positioned the Skull
Gear/Torco Race Fuels Top Fuel dragster No. 12 in the 16-car field.

Entering the final round of qualifying, Troxel was in No. 16 after
struggling in the previous rounds, then watched in the staging lanes as she
was bumped off the chart by Doug Herbert. It was a nail-biter, but her
fourth and final qualifying pass of 4.628 seconds at 325.02 mph
re-established her place in the field.

"You try not to think about that because it's going to mess you up more than
anything," she said of that moment when she realized she had been bumped
out, "so I went up there with faith in my great group of guys. I knew we
would be able to do what it takes to get the Skull Gear car in, and we did."

The three previous runs were a tire-shaking 6.608/120.36 and 9.876/94.33,
and a 4.689/258.24, when the car hit the rev limiter, skidded and instead of
one parachute being deployed to slow the car, both parachutes deployed,
resulting in just enough loss of ET to place her in 16th.

"It's tough going up there knowing you have to run a good number, but
not so good that you're running it on the edge," she said. "We had some
really good data from our first pass today that didn't quite make it to
the finish line, so we just made a few changes to that and the car went
down the track.

"It doesn't bother me that much," she said of qualifying in the bottom half.
"When we won the Winternationals we were in the bottom half of the field.
Anything can happen on race day, and I'm sure we can improve on those
numbers from the last (qualifying) session."

As for the newly-mandated Goodyear tire the teams ran this weekend for the
first time: "I think it will take teams a few races to get real comfortable
with the tire," she said. "I don't think our problems have been related to
the tire, so that may play into our hands and give us a chance to get the
car performing where it needs to be."

She meets Brandon Bernstein in first round of eliminations on Sunday.