NHRA (READING) TROXEL FEELING POSITIVE

The NHRA POWERade Countdown to the Championship is literally winding down to only seconds and the time has finally arrived in the Toyo Tires Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway for the final positions to be decided of those who will make the move up and becoming a member of the elite eight. Melanie Troxel, driver of the Vietnam Veterans POW/MIA Top Fuel dragster, is exactly in that position. After qualifying, the Avon, Ind. resident, now has accumulated a total of 736 points and snagged the No. 5 position with her pass from Saturday morning of 4.549 seconds, at a speed of 326.08 mph. Her main contender for the last spot in the Countdown, David Grubnic, qualified in the No. 4 position (4.545 seconds) and can now claim 739 points to his total bringing the distance between the two down to only three points with eliminations beginning at 11 a.m. on Sunday. Her first round opponent will be her Lucas Oil teammate, Morgan Lucas, the No. 12 qualifier. It will mark her 11th time to qualify in the No. 5 position and against Lucas holds the edge 8 – 3 in head-to-head match-ups. That 4.54 was a really nice run this morning, said Troxel. We knew we were going to have to take a chance and roll the dice to try to get ahead of Grubnic, but it didn’t work out. We do know where to put it back to go out and run some good numbers tomorrow. Unfortunately, we have to race our teammate (Morgan Lucas) on Sunday, which is disappointing because I think we’ve made some definite strides and this means one of us is not getting past the first round. On the other hand, when you look at the ladder we have our destiny in our own hands. We have the possibility of racing Grubnic in the second round. If we both make it past the first round, then we have to earn out way into the top eight by getting around him. It should prove to be an exciting day tomorrow.” ESPN2-HD will air the final round of eliminations starting at 10 p.m. EDT on Sunday, August 19.