Troxel lands No. 7 in Vegas qualifying, runs in her first Budweiser Shootout

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 22 of 23
ACDELCO LAS VEGAS NHRA NATIONALS
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Race Date: Oct. 27-29, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

TROXEL LANDS NO. 7 IN VEGAS QUALIFYING - RUNS IN HER FIRST BUDWEISER
SHOOTOUT

LAS VEGAS (Oct. 28, 2006) - Melanie Troxel, Top Fuel winner at the NHRA
POWERade Drag Racing Series' spring event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway, qualified No. 7 today for the ACDelco NHRA Nationals, en route,
she hopes, to her second straight victory here.

Troxel rolled hot off the trailer on Friday and drove the Skull Shine/Knoll
Gas-Torco Race Fuels Top Fuel dragster to No. 4 with a 4.574-second pass at
327.43 mph. Following two less-than-stellar passes Friday night and early
Saturday, she improved her elapsed time to a 4.558/329.42 in the final
qualifying session, earning her the No. 7 spot.

"Track conditions are great here at The Strip," she said. "We started out
strong running in the 4.50s right out of the box, and we were definitely
looking forward to seeing what the track could take after that, but we
followed that up with smoking the tires in the next two runs. Even on our
fourth qualifying run it tried to rattle the tires off at the same spot.

"We're working on trying to get the car through one little section of
the race track. We know the car will run great down track, as long as
we can get it down there.

"We had a lot of data from our win here in the spring, and that
certainly is what helped us run that number right off the trailer. But,
conditions will change from race to race, and you always have to make
some adjustments to get the car running how you want."

Troxel also competed in her first Budweiser Shootout today, a $100,000 NHRA
bonus event, as a part of this weekend's qualifying, where she lost to Larry
Dixon in the first round, with a 8.601/87.98 pass to Dixon's winning
4.587/325.22. "We were looking for a little different result in the
Budweiser Shootout," she said, "but it was my first time, and hopefully
there will be plenty more."

The Budweiser Shootout, the 22nd annual this weekend, is a special
race-within-a-race bonus event contested annually for the eight quickest
NHRA Top Fuel drivers, who earn points throughout the year, beginning with
the season finale in Pomona.

Troxel faces No. 10 qualifier Rod Fuller in the opening round of
eliminations on Sunday.

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