LAS VEGAS - - Gary Scelzi regained the Funny Car points lead in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car championship today with his runner-up finish against his teammate Ron Capps at the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
John Force, the leader coming into this event, along with Robert Hight, were ousted in the opening round.
Capps moved into second place with his win and the chase has tightened up even more among the top three drivers, as Scelzi holds a two-point lead over Capps, who leads Force by 26 points, with one race left in the season.
Scelzi, who drives the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Stratus R/T for Don Schumacher Racing, dismissed Gary Densham in the first round with a 4.823-second pass at 322.11 mph, then disposed of Eric Medlen in the second with a 4.851/324.67.
The final round was an all-Don Schumacher Racing affair, as Scelzi launched first with a solid .042 (.000 is perfect) reaction time to Capps' .071. The two were neck to neck the entire run, but Capps edged out Scelzi with a 4.780/325.69 pass to Scelzi's losing 4.819/324.51. The margin of victory was a scant .0103 of a second.
"We had a great weekend," said Scelzi. "We were one win light short of what we planned to do. We planned to qualify No. 1. We did that. We made it to the final round, but we just missed it a little bit.
"We were a little bit slower than Capps all day long, but we had a great result. We fixed that 36-point deficit to Force and we got beat. But that's OK. It was two Schumacher cars one and two.
"We were afraid to jump on it early because the track was different today than it was the two days before, and we gave up a lot early and we didn't smoke the tires.
"The last race in Pomona is going to be one hell of a finale."
Next up is the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., Nov. 3-6, which will close out the 2005 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
FUNNY CAR POINTS:
1. Gary Scelzi, 1458
2. Ron Capps, 1456
3. John Force, 1430
4. Robert Hight, 1325
5. Eric Medlen, 1316
6. Tommy Johnson Jr., 1222
7. Del Worsham, 1175
8. Whit Bazemore, 1160
9. Tony Pedregon, 1123
10. Cruz Pedregon, 997
