Stevens Jr. exits early in Gainesville

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 19, 2006) - The NHRA POWERade Drag Racing
Series Pro Stock class just keeps on getting tighter and tighter, and Richie
Stevens Jr. is finding out the hard way how competitive it is. After
qualifying the Team Mopar/Valspar Dodge Stratus R/T in No. 5 with a
career-quickest run of 6.664/206.04, he lost the first round of eliminations
at the NHRA Gatornationals in a close contest against Tom Martino.

Both drivers launched with .025 (of a second) reaction times, but it was
Martino first across the finish line, winning with a 6.696/204.35 pass to
Stevens' 6.715/205.94.

"We had identical lights," said Stevens. "We left, it shook pretty bad down
low. I tried to catch it and I was a little late on the gear change. It
shook probably 10 feet off the line. I pulled out of second, I was just a
touch late, but it still shook all the way through second gear and he was
gone. We weren't going to catch him at that time.

"He just made a better run than us. I thought we had him. We made some good
runs during qualifying, I thought we had it down pat. But we goofed up a
little bit."

Few argue that Pro Stock is NHRA's most competitive class. "There's no room
for mistakes," explained Stevens. "You have to be perfect every time. It's
tougher and tougher every race every year. You have people who don't drive
on a regular basis qualifying (for events). You had Dave Connolly and Kurt
Johnson go home on Saturday night (not qualified).

"It's tough to get to Sunday, much less race on Sunday. It's a race in
itself just to get qualified, when you have 30 or so cars showing up for a
race and everybody is trying to get the 16 spots. You think you have a good
one, that you might go a round or two. It just goes to show you that anybody
can win. You can win from the 16th spot and you can win from the first
spot."

Stevens Jr. is 10th in the Pro Stock point standings as he heads to the NHRA
Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park, March 31-April 2.