Scelzi booted out by Worsham in U.S. Nationals first round

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 BOOTED OUT BY WORSHAM IN U.S. NATIONALS FIRST ROUND

CLERMONT, Ind. (Sept. 3, 2007) - Gary Scelzi got booted out of the U.S.
Nationals Funny Car eliminations in the first round today, but he's still
buoyed by the performance of the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T.

Scelzi faced off against Del Worsham in the opening stanza in a close
quarter-mile match-up. Scelzi and Worsham were nearly dead-even at the
starting lights (.088 for Worsham, .092 for Scelzi), but it was Worsham
first across the finish stripe with a winning 4.841-second pass at 322.04
mph. Scelzi followed .0357-of-a-second behind with a strong 4.872/318.92.

"I've got a car that can win a lot of races," he said. "It would not
surprise me to win two or three in a row. It's just that Indy is one of
those things and we just got outrun. Nobody did anything wrong; the car ran
extremely well. It goes down the race track. Todd (Okuhara, crew chief) is
happy, I'm happy, the Mopar/Oakley Dodge guys are excited. Let's go to
Memphis. 

"We didn't get the results we wanted. It's not because of the effort, it's
not because the car's running poorly. I've chalked this one down as just one
of those unfortunate things."

Scelzi is seventh of eight in the new Countdown to Four playoffs points, 62
short of the coveted fourth spot. The next three events will determine the
top four, who will then vie for the championship in the final two events of
the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

"It's a hiccup that we didn't want," he said of his not advancing in the
standings, "but we qualified. And that's important. But you need to win some
rounds too. The first thing you have to get out of the way is qualifying.
The next thing is you need to win rounds and win races."

Next up is the O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals in Memphis, Tenn., Sept.
14-16.

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