Joliet: Gary Scelzi Friday summary

SCELZI ON PROVISIONAL POLE IN JOLIET

JOLIET, Ill. (June 8, 2007) - Driving the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T, Gary Scelzi grabbed the provisional Funny Car pole position Friday night at the Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway, posting a 4.736-second pass at 330.96 mph. Right behind him, in second, was his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps, with a 4.755/326.87.

Scelzi's first run produced a 5.757/171.27, good for No. 9 at the time.

Two more qualifying sessions are scheduled for Saturday. If Scelzi holds on as low qualifier through Saturday's rounds, he will have earned his second No. 1 of the year. He was low qualifier at the season opener in Pomona, Calif., and won that event.

"I think they're pretty good," he said of his chances to hold on to No. 1. "Tonight was pretty stellar. I don't know what happened to the race track on the first qualifying session for Funny Car, but there was definitely a problem. Evidently they fixed it for Top Fuel and then we knew it would be good tonight. We actually kind of threw the Pomona tune-up in it, and we were looking to run .71 (and) it ran .73, so that's close enough for me to hold No. 1. It feels good because we've struggled since Pomona and, who knows, maybe we can turn it around right here.

"No. 1 qualifying is fun, but blue-hat day is the day. Winning on Sunday is what's always mattered to me. The qualifying stuff is kind of the fluff, but we definitely want to win on Sunday; that's the big thing. (As for) qualifying, as long as you're in, and you always like to be in the top three or four, it's great, it's neat."

-credit: dsr