Scelzi loses a close second round, moves into top 10 in Topeka

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 28, 2006) - Gary Scelzi moved into 10th place in NHRA
POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car point standings today following his
first-round win in eliminations at the O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals at
Heartland Park Topeka.

No. 8 qualifier Scelzi, driving the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T, easily
defeated Frank Pedregon in the opener, with a 4.946-second elapsed time at
303.03 mph to Pedregon's 6.118/164.79.

Just four feet separated Scelzi from his opponent, Robert Hight, at the
finish stripe in the quarterfinal, however, as Hight took the win over the
reigning Funny Car champion by a margin of .0097 of a second, posting a
4.977/293.09 victory over Scelzi's 5.008/297.61.

"The most important thing for me is to get my confidence back to know I can
drive the car," said Scelzi who, along with everyone else, endured extreme
heat and high winds this weekend in the heart of Kansas. "And the changes we
made obviously worked because this was a difficult race track, especially
with the wind and it being so hot.

"The Mopar/Oakley Dodge was wanting to move around a lot and we kept it in
the groove every run.

"I'm not upset. We actually made three out of the four runs in qualifying
and two runs in eliminations without smoking the tires. Zippy (crew chief
Mike Neff) has really come into his own and the car is handling well. There
are a few improvements we're going to do to it to make it even better and
faster. We're going to be able to do that before Chicago.

"We broke through to the top 10. We have a lot of positives. We just need to
keep digging. But we're a lot better off than we were at the beginning (of
the season). And now we look back and we can actually see the improvements.
All the work that we've done has started to pay off. So, let's go to
Chicago."

Next up is the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in
Joliet, Ill., June 9-11.

FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS:

1. Ron Capps, 781, (winner today)
2. John Force, 672
3. Robert Hight, 552
4. Eric Medlen, 528
5. Tony Pedregon, 508
6. Tommy Johnson Jr., 478
7. Whit Bazemore, 466
8. Del Worsham, 438
9. Cruz Pedregon, 433
10. Gary Scelzi, 400