Championship Drag Racing

Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals
Denver, CO
(July 15-17)

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Driver Profile

Gary Scelzi Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger Funny Car

Denver, Saturday: Gary Scelzi joined his teammates Whit Bazemore and Ron Capps at the front of the Funny Car field as the No. 4 qualifier of a 2-3-4 Don Schumacher Racing sweep today at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals. The driver of the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Stratus Funny Car posted a 4.835/322.11 in today's final round of qualifying, which was the quickest of that round and followed a 4.888/313.29, a 7.476/112.77 and a 5.313/215.89.

"We're slowly but surely getting rid of this Bandimere jinx," he said of the track at which he's never won or qualified well. "The highest we've qualified here in Funny Car is 15th and now we're fourth, and I feel good about race day.

"Qualifying at 3 o'clock in the afternoon or 6 p.m. or later, I don't understand, because we don't race in these types of conditions. You get one shot at 3 o'clock which is going to be similar to race day.

"It's going to be hot and slippery on Sunday. There's going to be a lot of 5.0s (elapsed times), I'm sure, winning some rounds. Hopefully, we'll be running some 4.90s while everybody else is running 5.0s.

"We made it down every (qualifying) run but one. In the first run today (7.476)it would have made it, but it was spinning the tire pretty hard so I shut it off. So we feel pretty good about what we've got. We'll keep our fingers crossed and see where the chips fall.

"It was nice to move things around in qualifying so all the teammates are on one side of the ladder. It was a good run, but we know we can do those kind of runs in these kind of (cooler) conditions."

Scelzi faces Cruz Pedregon in the first round of eliminations on Sunday and would not meet one of his teammates until the final round.

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