Championship Drag Racing

Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals
Norwalk, OH
(June 28-July 1)

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Driver Profile

Melanie Troxel In-n-Out Burger Dodge R/T

Norwalk, prerace: When Melanie Troxel pulled into the pits for the first time at the inaugural Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park, she was impressed by the marvelous enhancements that have been made to the famous dragway.

"I've never raced here, but did come out last year for the press conference when they announced we were coming, so I had the opportunity to see the track then," said Troxel. "It's really amazing all the improvements they've made to the facility and I know how excited the Bader family is about having this event at their track this year and it's obvious from the town itself, they also are just as excited about the arrival of our National event."

What Troxel would really like to see happen for her this weekend is to have her name etched on the victor's trophy as the race's first Top Fuel winner. It's been a pretty much of a roller-coaster season with two final round appearances -- her triumphant St. Louis weekend, but on the other side, she's had seven first round losses.

Despite all that, she finds her Vietnam Veterans POW/MIA Top Fuel team sponsored by Torco Race Fuels, currently in the sixth position in the NHRA POWERade Countdown to the Championship.

One of the concurrent reasons for her stability in the standings is her team's ability to qualify for all the past 10 races. Her average starting position so far in 2007 is 9.2 and she understands the importance of that, but wants the entire package to come together with race results proven as good as the team's qualifying efforts.

"We were expecting more from this season although we have a win and a runner up," said Troxel. "Along with our success we have a lot of first round losses. That will not put us in a position to have a shot at the championship if we're doing that late in the year. The beginning of the second event of our six race swing is all about continually moving in the right direction. We went through some big changes recently and I think our first weekend out we did okay. I'm personally excited to get back this weekend and find out what we can do. I think we have a great opportunity to see a big improvement on our team.

"If you can run well in this race swing then obviously, you'll be in the Countdown of those eight drivers. It'll show that you have a solid car having a shot at the POWERade championship. For us, as well as a lot of other teams, this is a kind of a do-or-die time to show what your team is made of."

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