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In strange twist, reigning Funny Car champ Scelzi fails to qualify in Houston

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 4 of 23
O'REILLY NHRA SPRING NATIONALS
Houston Raceway
Race Date: March 31-April 2, 2006


BAYTOWN, Texas (April 1) - No, this is not an April Fool's joke. Gary Scelzi
wishes it was, but the reigning NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car
champion (and three-time Top Fuel champ) failed to qualify for and event for
only the second time since joining Don Schumacher Racing in 2003. The first
was 70 races ago, in Las Vegas in April of that year.

The driver of the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T struggled through all four
qualifying rounds for the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals this weekend at
Houston Raceway, and only made it into the field one time, in the first
session. He moved into No. 16 after Tommy Johnson Jr.'s run was disqualified
for crossing the centerline.

Scelzi's lap times reflected the difficulty the car was having getting down
the quarter-mile: 9.261/85.19, 7.515/117.00, 6.853/132.32, and finally his
best, a 5.307/303.64, which was not good enough to qualify.

"I don't know what's going on here," said Scelzi, who also became a trivia
question, when it was declared that he was the first defending Funny Car
champion in 21 years to have DNQ'd at an event in the year following his
title win. "We made a huge change after the first run today and the car did
not respond to anything. It either should have smoked the tires, or it
should have done something different. It's just like it's got a governor on
it.

"Mike (Neff, crew chief) is in there looking at the computer trying to
figure out what to do, but it's got to stop. There's no question about it.
We made drastic changes with no response, it just did the same thing.

"We'll test here on Monday," he continued. "We need to test here at Houston
Raceway. We don't need to go to Dallas or anywhere else. We need to just go
right back where we came from and try to find the problem.

"It's not anybody's fault but our own and, believe me, we won't be down for
long."

Next up is the NHRA Summitracing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas
Motor Speedway April 7-9.