Phoenix: Melanie Troxel Friday summary

TROXEL TAKES PROVISIONAL NO. 3 IN QUICK PHOENIX FIELD

PHOENIX (Feb. 23) -- Melanie Troxel's Vietnam Veterans Memorial Top Fuel dragster rallied in the opening day of qualifying for the 23rd annual Checkers Schuck's Kragen Nationals at Firebird Raceway to move into the No.3 qualifying position after a superb run of 4.495 seconds along with a speed of 331.12 mph.

"Things are definitely coming around over here," said Troxel. "It's great to see not only our car step up and run our first 4.40 of the year , but to see Morgan's car run to the finish line has to give them a great feeling. I know they have a little more room to improve, but I feel we're moving both cars in the right direction. I think we're going to see improvement because we going to be able to share information between the two cars and really step our program up.

Qualifying continues on Saturday with two more rounds at 12:30 and 3 p.m. with ESPN2 airing a one-hour qualifying show at 12 a.m. on Saturday night, Feb. 24.

-credit: lor