Phoenix: Gary Scelzi final summary

Scelzi out in second round, hangs on to third in Funny Car points

CHANDLER, Ariz. (March 7, 2004) - After defeating Ron Capps in the first round of eliminations of the CSK NHRA Nationals at Firebird Raceway today, Gary Scelzi looked to be en route to another strong result in the second of 23 events of the 2004 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

He earned lane choice in that round with a 4.938/307.79 lap compared to his second-round opponent Phil Burkart Jr.'s 4.949/293.35 lap, which he used to defeat John Force in the first round. But it was all she wrote, as Scelzi's HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge struck the tires at 60 feet, then slowed to an 8.393-second elapsed time at 92.58 mph. Burkart was there for the taking with a 5.024/292.77 pass, but the win light was his by a margin of victory of 3.1482 seconds.

Scelzi maintains his No. 3 position in the NHRA Funny Car point standings with 129 to leader (and winner of today's Funny Car event) Del Worsham's 186.

"The HEMI-powered Oakley has been slow early all weekend, but never in trouble," said Scelzi. "We made a very minor change and all of a sudden it became an animal. It went out there far enough to where it should have made it and all of a sudden it just took the tire off it. We don't know why. It's one of those things. Hot race tracks. We need to get better at it. We need to figure out why and not make a habit of it. When a 5.05 beats you that's pretty tough."

-dsr-