Stevens Jr. claims No. 9 in E-town qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 11 of 23
K&N Filters SuperNationals
Old Bridge Township Raceway
Englishtown, N.J.
Race Date: June 16-18, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501; 203-243-2438 cell;
jstropus@earthlink.net

STEVENS JR. CLAIMS NO. 9 IN ENGLISHTOWN QUALIFYIING

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (June 17, 2006) - Richie Stevens Jr. zoomed to the No. 9
qualifying spot in the second round of Pro Stock qualifying at Old Bridge
Township Raceway Park for the K&N Filters SuperNationals, by registering a
6.668-second pass at 207.59 mph. At that moment it was the fastest speed of
his NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series career.

The driver of the Team Mopar/Valspar Dodge Stratus R/T then one-upped
himself in the third session when he ran an even faster 207.72 mph, with an
elapsed-time of 6.669 seconds.

Stevens opened qualifying with a 6.743/205.94 lap and closed the sessions
with a 6.699/206.26 for the quickest Pro Stock field in NHRA history.

The New Orleans native has renewed confidence heading into Sunday
eliminations following a strong showing in Joliet, Ill., last weekend,
despite a hiccup here. "We have the power to qualify better, obviously," he
said. "We qualified No. 1 last week at Route 66 Raceway.

"Here, we had the wrong low gear in the transmission on Friday night with
ideal weather conditions, but we know what we did wrong and we did great in
the sun today after we corrected it. That's going to be more like race
conditions, so I feel good for tomorrow.

"The car is working well and we have the horsepower, so now we just need to
go rounds and get a win. That's the only thing missing out of this puzzle. I
feel like I'm driving good, and hopefully I can cut some good lights
(reaction times) tomorrow and grab some round wins.

"I've had two wins here (1999 and 2001), and I'd love to add another one
tomorrow. The whole field is only separated by four-hundredths of a second,
so it's anybody's race. We'll see what happens."

Stevens faces Dave Howard in the first round of eliminations.

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