Richmond: Gary Scelzi Saturday notes

SCELZI QUALIFIES EIGHTH, TIES CAPPS IN FOURTH IN POINTS IN RICHMOND

PETERSBURG, Va. (Oct. 6, 2007) - Gary Scelzi and the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T team pulled out an important Funny Car qualifying effort in the final of only three sessions (because of rain on Friday) held at the Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.

With that effort, producing a 4.849-second elapsed time at 319.22 mph, Scelzi earned the No. 8 spot and tied his teammate Ron Capps in fourth place in the Countdown to Four standings. Both drivers were not qualified as they entered the final session. Capps earned 15th. The tie-breaker is round wins in the Countdown to Four, and Scelzi leads that stat with four to Capps' one.

Scelzi's other attempts included a tire-smoking 11.762/75.39 in Friday's only evening session, and a 5.180/278.52, both relegating him outside of the field.

"Everybody's excited," said Scelzi, adding, tongue firmly planted in cheek, followed by a laugh, "Todd (Okuhara, crew chief along with Phil Shuler) and I had no problems with that. We're just all sitting around here b.s.-ing." The tension had clearly abated in the lounge after that run.

"It's down to crunch time," he added. "Fortunately, I have been in enough of these deals that you either do it or you don't. I felt that if the Mopar/Oakley Dodge went from the starting line to the finish line and nothing stupid happened like the round before, it would get in.

"There's no doubt that it can run mid- to low .80s or whatever Todd wants it to run. Tomorrow is important. We got (Del) Worsham first round, one of the best guys out there and we're going to go out there and do everything we can do to try to win that round and see what happens from there.

"There's nothing else we can do."

-credit: dsr