Bristol: Gary Scelzi Friday summary

Scelzi qualifies sixth in Bristol on Friday night

BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 30, 2004) - After Gary Scelzi smoked the tires which caused his HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge Stratus Funny Car to make a sharp left and right move in the first round of qualifying, he impressed in the second session by posting a 4.857-second elapsed time at 319.52 mph, placing him solidly in the field in No. 6.

"We're in the show," he said. "We're not waiting for the last session to get in. This new clutch combination is still on the soft side. We're working our way into it.

"Actually, in the first run it shouldn't have smoked the tires. We didn't change anything. We came right back because we knew the track was going to be better and it was actually too soft. But now we've got some good data to see what everything is about.

"The track is going to get better every run. It has new concrete (on the launch pad) so the more rubber that gets on it the better it's going to be. We should be able to run low 4.80s tomorrow, no matter what the weather is, maybe even a little quicker."

Two more rounds of qualifying are schedule tomorrow for the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals, the sixth round of the 23-event NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

-dsr-