NHRA

Joliet: Gary Scelzi preview

SCELZI SET FOR MOVE UP THE RANKS IN CHICAGO JOLIET, Ill. (June 8, 2005) - Gary Scelzi, who moved up six spots in three races this year in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car point standings, is in the middle of a five-car battle for ...

Published: Jun 10, 2005, 2:39 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

SCELZI SET FOR MOVE UP THE RANKS IN CHICAGO

JOLIET, Ill. (June 8, 2005) - Gary Scelzi, who moved up six spots in three races this year in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car point standings, is in the middle of a five-car battle for second place as the series comes to the super-smooth, ultra-fast Route 66 Raceway for this weekend's CARQUEST NHRA Nationals.

The Fresno, Calif., native, who was second after eight races driving the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Stratus R/T Funny Car for Don Schumacher Racing, is now a close third following a second-round loss at Heartland Park Topeka on Memorial Day weekend. He's just 12 points out of second place, and 139 short of No. 1 John Force.

With three Top Fuel championships to his credit, Scelzi is seeking his first Funny Car crown after switching to that class in 2002. His Mopar/Oakley Dodge, tuned by Mike Neff, has been a rocket going down the quarter-mile, having set top speed 15 times since Scelzi joined DSR in 2003.

Route 66 Raceway was where Scelzi became the first Funny Car driver to break the 330-mph mark in 2004, and is famous for the record-breaking runs set here. But with a number of NHRA rules changes since then, including a mandatory rev limiter, can Scelzi hit that magic mark again this weekend? "This new rev limiter has come into play," he said, "but we think we can run 330."

Winning, however, and a strong move up in the points is the goal. "We think we can do well here," said Scelzi, who won Top Fuel at Route 66 in 2000 and was runner-up in 1998 and 2001. "We sure would like to win in Chicago, since it's (team owner) Don Schumacher's home town.

"The Mopar/Oakley Dodge is running well. We just had that hiccup in Topeka and hopefully we're going to get through those problems. We have a POWERade championship contender and we just have to execute and that's what we're going to try to do."

Route 66 this weekend marks the start of a second three-race swing. "We're evaluating everything in threes," said Scelzi. "This is the beginning, so we would really like to start it off like we've done in the others: get to at least the semifinals, and hopefully if we win enough of those we're going to win some more finals too."

Scelzi has one win (Bristol) in two final rounds so far in 2005.

"We're still in the hunt. We're third in points. We're less than one round out of second, and we need to stop the big green machine of John Force. That's what everybody needs to do. Only so much of it is in our hands. We need (teammate Whit) Bazemore and we need (teammate Ron) Capps to do their jobs and the other teams. We've got to get him early.

"That's what needs to start happening right now; otherwise we're going to have a runaway and he's going to be the champion again for the umpteenth time."

-dsr-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Joliet: Warren Johnson pre-race notes

Next article Joliet: Richie Stevens Jr preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Max Verstappen slams “unacceptable” bumps at Austin F1 track: “It's out of control”

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

7 h

Max Verstappen slams “unacceptable” bumps at Austin F1 track: “It's out of control”

Kimi Antonelli ready to "finish the job" as first F1 title chance beckons at US GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

7 h

Kimi Antonelli ready to "finish the job" as first F1 title chance beckons at US GP

How to watch NASCAR at Talladega II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

8 h

How to watch NASCAR at Talladega II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV

Peterson Racing addresses online abuse after parting ways with Austin Green

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Talladega II

8 h

Peterson Racing addresses online abuse after parting ways with Austin Green

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts