Scelzi nails down No. 8 in Gateway qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 12 of 23
O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals
Gateway International Raceway
Madison, Ill.
Race Date: June 23-25, 2006



MADISON, Ill. (June 24, 2006) - Gary Scelzi entered the final Funny Car
qualifying session today for the O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway
International Raceway outside of the 16-car field.

After struggling in the first three qualifying rounds, posting first a
5.214-elapsed time at 240.34 mph, then a tire-smoking slow lap in which the
ET was not recorded by the NHRA, and a 5.154/249.30 in the third session,
the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T team made major changes to the car.
Scelzi then tore down the quarter-mile to a 4.855-second elapsed time at
318.09 mph, placing the reigning NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car
champion solidly in the field, in No. 8.

"We've been fighting ignition problems," explained Scelzi, who has won at
Gateway four times. "Too much timing, not enough timing, in late; just kept
doing everything it wasn't supposed to be doing. So (before) last run we
changed engines, the complete wiring harness, all the ignition, all the MSD
boxes, everything. And it finally acted like it was supposed to and it ran
what it was supposed to run.

"We probably could've run quicker, but we didn't want to try it. We just
wanted to get into the show solid, and we did that. Now we can go race and
maybe we'll have our car back."

Scelzi faces Cruz Pedregon in first round of eliminations on Sunday.