Troxel enters E'town eliminations from No. 11

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

TROXEL ENTERS ENGLISHTOWN ELIMINATIONS FROM NO. 11 SPOT

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (June 17, 2006) - Top Fuel points leader Melanie Troxel
struggled some in qualifying for the K&N Filters SuperNationals at Old
Bridge Township Raceway Park, but secured the No. 11 spot by setting a
4.608-second pass at 320.13 mph in the hot and humid final qualifying round.

Her goal, as always, is to go rounds in eliminations on Sunday in the Skull
Shine/Knoll Gas-Torco Race Fuels dragster in her attempt to stay atop the
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Top Fuel point standings.

"We certainly haven't done as well as we would have liked to (in
qualifying)," she said of the last two events (No. 12 and No. 11). Our first
run out of the box was a nice conservative run (4.621/320.58), but since
then we haven't really seen what we've wanted. We didn't make it down the
track all the way to the finish line until the last session."

Her other two qualifying passes resulted in a 9.703/85.09 after losing
traction on Friday night, while a burnt piston slowed her to a 4.652/278.86
in Saturday's third round.

"I think that 4.60 in the heat of the day was a very good run," she said,
"but unfortunately in qualifying you're going to have to make a good run in
better conditions than what we faced today. But, on the upside, we have a
good tune-up for race day. I think we have a good shot in eliminations
tomorrow.

"We have great confidence in the fact that the qualifying spot doesn't
matter much to us (won from the No. 9 position at the Winternationals,
reached two other finals from bottom-half of the field). It seems like once
we get a good run under our belts on Sunday, we just progress and work our
way through the field," she said.

"Every pass is definitely important [to stay in] the championship. The real
thing that's going to tell the story for tomorrow is which of us goes
further in eliminations, us or Doug Kalitta. We're just going to take it
round by round. We can't worry too much about what he's doing. We just go up
and do the best we can on race day."

Troxel faces Larry Dixon in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday.

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