Troxel gains points despite early exit in Chicago

JOLIET, Ill. (June 8, 2008) – After basting to the No. 1 qualifying position in qualifying, Melanie Troxel, driver of the ProCare Rx Dodge Charger R/T, made an early exit in eliminations at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals.

In her first round matchup against veteran Gary Densham, the heavily-favored Troxel left the line first and led the race until just past half-track, when her car drifted to the left, forcing her to lift off the throttle to avoid hitting the retaining wall. At the stripe, Densham’s 4.928/309.98 easily beat Troxel’s 5.050/259.41.

“The plan was to be quick enough to beat Densham, but to be safe, too. For whatever reason, we smoked the tires and started mixing up the cylinders. In the process, the car made a pretty big move toward the wall and I lifted. It was a close race, though,“ Troxel said.

Commenting on achieving her first No. 1 qualifying position in Funny Car, Troxel said she enjoyed the milestone, but remained focused on her job as the driver.

“Being number one qualifier doesn’t change how I’m going to race anybody. It’s a lot of fun, it’s exciting, but come Sunday morning, you get back to your normal race day mentality.

“I think overall it was a really good weekend. Our cars qualified numbers one and two, and we’re seeing both cars run more and more consistently – and that’s exactly what we need,” she said.

Troxel moved from 15th to 14th in the points chase and picked up six points, putting her 63 points out of the top ten. The team heads next to Englishtown, New Jersey June 19-22 for the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals.