Phoenix: Gary Scelzi Saturday summary

SCELZI STRONG IN PHOENIX QUALIFYING, GRABS NO. 5 SPOT

CHANDLER, Ariz. (Feb. 26, 2005) - Steering the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Stratus Funny Car, Gary Scelzi set a track speed record last night of 327.66 mph at an elapsed time of 4.770 seconds, which planted him solidly in the top half of the field, in fifth, following two more qualifying sessions.

Today Scelzi watched his record be eclipsed by Robert Hight, first with a 328.22 mph run in today's third session, then by an even faster speed of 329.99 mph in the final session.

The three-time Top Fuel champion was undaunted and said he and crew chief Mike Neff are prepared to face whatever comes their way in eliminations on Sunday, where he'll meet Tim Wilkerson in the first round.

"Phoenix is tricky," he said. "We'll see what happens tomorrow. We ran the .77 last night, which was really strong, and the Mopar/Oakley Dodge is running good early. We're just trying some different things with the timing and we're a little bit off.

"We should be fine for tomorrow. We have enough runs and enough data to figure out what we have to do."

-dsr-