Championship Drag Racing

Schuck's Auto Supply NHRA Nationals
Seattle, Wash.
(July 18-20)

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Driver Profile

Gary Scelzi Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger

Seattle, Saturday: Four-time NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series champion Gary Scelzi had a tough two days of qualifying for the NHRA Nationals at Pacific Raceways. Despite the challenges he and the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team faced, he finally landed in the 12th spot, with a pass of 4.107 seconds at 303.64 mph, set in Friday night's cooler session under cloud cover.

Racing to the 1000-foot finish line for the second straight event, his other passes were an 8.806/79.09 on Friday, and a 5.238/139.40 and 5.583/125.59 today in sunny and warm conditions.

"Difficult situation," said Scelzi. "As soon as this race track sees sun it's a mess. We had cloud cover on Friday and we kind of had fantasyland. We were trying some things on Friday and we hoped today we would have cloud cover and we didn't.

"We were also trying a couple of things the last couple of runs and the Mopar/Oakley Dodge didn't like it. Todd (Okuhara, crew chief) thinks he knows where he's at for tomorrow and I'm sure the sun is going to be out. So, we'll go up there, shoot our shot and see if we can't take out Tony Bartone (his first-round opponent).

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