Commerce: Melanie Troxel Saturday summary

TROXEL WANTS TO CONTINUE HER WINNING WAYS COMMERCE, Ga. (April 28) -- For Melanie Troxel, she only knows of only one way at Atlanta Dragway -- to the finish line. In the 2006 version, in her first time at the track, she marveled all ...

TROXEL WANTS TO CONTINUE HER WINNING WAYS

COMMERCE, Ga. (April 28) -- For Melanie Troxel, she only knows of only one way at Atlanta Dragway -- to the finish line. In the 2006 version, in her first time at the track, she marveled all competitors by reaching the final round before being turned back by Doug Kalitta. Despite the warmer conditions predicted for tomorrow, she wants to represent her Vietnam Veterans MIA/POW dragster team in continuing her winning ways in the Peach State.

She will come out of the No. 5 position with her run of 4.525 seconds along with a speed of 324.20 mph on Friday night to race Doug Foley in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday. It's has been a tuner's nightmare for some as teammate Morgan Lucas just barely missed the cut to wind up in the 18th position.

"It does certainly seem to be hit and miss between the different teams," said an optimistic Troxel. "Even though we've gotten down the track pretty well, the car has been all over the place for me, but I can definitely feel as a driver that traction isn't perfect out there. It's making the car hard to drive and I'm sure it's making it hard to tune for the different teams.

"We're obviously disappointed that our teammate Morgan Lucas didn't make it in this weekend. We're kind of a work in progress around here as a two-car team. We really are making progress even though it may not seem like it some weeks. We'll get there and I think this is our best qualifying spot in a little bit. It's nice to be on the top half of the field, so hopefully we'll make the most of it tomorrow and go a few rounds.

This will be Troxel's fourth meeting with Foley in eliminations, with the last time being the first round in Bristol in 2006. She holds the edge over Foley 2 -- 1 in previous head-to-head match ups.

"There are no easy races out here," said Troxel. "This is a tricky race track and you don't know what the track has to hold for you out there. Tomorrow should be fairly, cooler conditions, so we'll have a good idea of what we have to go against before getting up there. We're all counting on Richard (Hogan, crew chief) to give us a good, reliable car."