Las Vegas: Melanie Troxel Friday notes

Troxel Qualifies Simayof Jewelers Dodge Charger 11th at Vegas

LAS VEGAS, April 11, 2008 -- Melanie Troxel was all smiles after Friday's first day of qualifying for Sunday's SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway because she drove the Simayof Jewelers Dodge Charger R/T into the provisional 11th starting position.

While final qualifying berths won't be decided until Saturday's two runs, Troxel was relieved to register a solid, 4.935-second elapsed time at 319.90 mph. "I don't care where we qualify as long we are in the show," said the first-year Funny Car driver.

"That run felt good. This Gotham City Racing team has been through a lot in the first four races, but we never lost faith in ourselves. It was a relief to get a good run in early in the weekend. We have a good baseline to work with now. I'm happy we were able to do that because the Simayofs were here watching.

"As a driver, it was the first time for me in a Funny Car that I made a big (steering) correction and it felt good. And the car responded to what I was trying to get it to do."

Traction trouble on her first run forced Troxel to abort it early and she coasted in at 7.547 seconds, 152.66 mph.

-credit: gcr