Scelzi nabs No. 10 in U.S. Nationals qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2007 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 18 of 23
Countdown to Four
U.S. NATIONALS
O'Reilly Raceway Park
Clermont, Ind.
Aug. 31-Sept. 3, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

SCELZI NABS NO. 10 IN U.S. NATIONALS QUALIFYING

CLERMONT, Ind. (Sept. 2, 2007) - Gary Scelzi collected the No. 10 spot in
Funny Car qualifying for the prestigious U.S. Nationals, driving the
Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T. He also was eliminated in the first round of
the Skoal Showdown by his teammate Ron Capps. Scelzi's other teammate Jack
Beckman went on to win the $100,000 bonus event after defeating Capps in the
final round.

Scelzi recorded his quickest lap of 4.799 seconds at 322.50 mph in the first
qualifying session on Friday. His subsequent laps included a 4.928/314.46, a
4.823/280.72, a 5.019/303.78 (in the Showdown), and a 4.920/315.05.
 
"The Mopar/Oakley Dodge is going down the track every time," he said. "We
had a clutch disc come apart, we had it drop a cylinder, we had a slide
valve malfunction. We've had some silly things happen, which is OK to have
happen in qualifying.

"As for the Skoal Showdown, Todd (Okuhara, crew chief) is a little
disappointed we didn't put on a little bit better show.

"You know what, the big picture is the POWERade championship," he added,
alluding to the start of the Countdown to Four playoffs on Sunday. "And to
me that starts tomorrow. We have a tough customer in Del Worsham (first
round), but we went down the track every run. Todd doesn't seem to be
nervous and he wasn't nervous in Brainerd either when we took out the No. 1
qualifier, so we're going to go up there guns-ablazing and try to knock
these big dogs off."

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