Troxel takes provisional No. 1 in Topeka Friday qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 9 of 23
O'REILLY NHRA SUMMER NATIONALS
Heartland Park Topeka (Kan.)
Race Date: May 26-28, 2006



TOPEKA, Kan. (May 26, 2006) - Melanie Troxel captured the No. 1 position
after two of four qualifying rounds at the O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals at
Heartland Park Topeka.

The NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Top Fuel points leader drove the Skull
Shine/Torco Race Fuels Top Fuel dragster to a 4.567-second elapsed time at
321.50 mph to the top spot, which followed her earlier pass of 4.761/264.29.

Two more qualifying rounds are scheduled for Saturday.

"Qualifying hasn't necessarily been our strong point so far this year, and,
quite honestly, being No. 1 qualifier hasn't worked out too well for anybody
in either of the fuel classes," she said. "I'm happy to have the No. 1 spot,
but it wouldn't break my heart if somebody took it away tomorrow.

"I'm not really superstitious, but we've always been able to run well on
Sunday regardless of where we qualified - top half of the field, bottom half
of the field. Either way, it doesn't make that much difference to us going
into Sunday. 

"It's nice to get that good pass down the track. We don't always always do
that on Friday night. It puts us in a really good position to be able to
test things out tomorrow and not feel any pressure to worry about the car
necessarily going down the track. We can try new things."