Gary Scelzi had a tough Saturday night before Sunday's eliminations at the NHRA Torco Race Fuels NHRA Nationals.
 
And, the complexity of the evening was not really his fault.
 
Blame it on the television. 
 
Scelzi went back to the hotel about 9 PM and was planning to call his family. Then he decided to shower because he felt it would help him to sleep better.
 
Scelzi made the call and then watched television before falling asleep at 9:30.
 
Scelzi said he woke up at 10:30, then watched 11:30 pass and eventually turned off the television well past midnight. He kept watching the clock and before he knew it, 3:30 AM had come and gone.
 
“I fell really good and asleep and the alarm went off about two hours later,” Scelzi said. “I woke up and I felt a little under the weather. I was starting to get a cold and my nose was running. I took a shower and then took two benedryls.”
 
Scelzi called his wife this morning and explained to her that he couldn’t figure out why he was tired and couldn’t get going – totally ignoring the fact he’d been up all night.
 
“I don’t normally take anything on race day and then it hit me,” Scelzi said. “I said, ‘You dumb ass – you’re falling asleep and now you’re going to be sleepy come first round.”

Gary Scelzi had a tough Saturday night before Sunday's eliminations at the NHRA Torco Race Fuels NHRA Nationals.
 
And, the complexity of the evening was not really his fault.
 
Blame it on the television. 
 
Scelzi went back to the hotel about 9 PM and was planning to call his family. Then he decided to shower because he felt it would help him to sleep better.
 
Scelzi made the call and then watched television before falling asleep at 9:30.
 
Scelzi said he woke up at 10:30, then watched 11:30 pass and eventually turned off the television well past midnight. He kept watching the clock and before he knew it, 3:30 AM had come and gone.
 
“I fell really good and asleep and the alarm went off about two hours later,” Scelzi said. “I woke up and I felt a little under the weather. I was starting to get a cold and my nose was running. I took a shower and then took two benedryls.”
 
Scelzi called his wife this morning and explained to her that he couldn’t figure out why he was tired and couldn’t get going – totally ignoring the fact he’d been up all night.
 
“I don’t normally take anything on race day and then it hit me,” Scelzi said. “I said, ‘You dumb ass – you’re falling asleep and now you’re going to be sleepy come first round.”
 
That’s okay because Scelzi had a counter-measure.
 
“I was already crummy on the lights, so I figured that would make me even worse,” Scelzi said. “So I drank some coffee and then I panicked and said, ‘Great, now I am going to be over-amped.
 
“When I won in Memphis I didn’t feel all that great, so I hope in Vegas and Pomona I feel like hell.”
 

 

Scelzi’s panic was unnecessary because his crew was a calming factor.
 
“It was a great day and [crew chief] Todd Okahara made all the right calls,” Scelzi said. “Okahara has been great and I don’t want to forget that it was Mike Neff who got us here. I don’t ever want to forget that. I will help him in any way I can to drive a Funny Car.”
 
Scelzi said Okahara is the third of three professional crew chiefs he’s had in his career dating back to Alan Johnson.
 
“Each one of them I love dearly,” Scelzi said. “Before the final I told Todd that we were already in the top four, so let’s go after the second spot. I told him, ‘Let’s hop this thing up and see how quick it will go you little coward.”
 
Lesson number three for Scelzi. Never call your crew chief a coward when he can add power to the car.
 
“When I hit the gas, that thing was so out of control,” Scelzi said. “That was the worst case of driving I think you could ever do. I don’t know how I kept from running over everything. I was driving in and out of the groove. My car looked like a windshield wiper going from side to side.”
 

 

Lesson number four for Scelzi – leave a teammate alone when you are tied when they are fighting for a spot in the championship.
 
“I had forgotten for a moment that Capps is an emotional guy at the top end,” Scelzi said. “He was fourteenth qualifier and I didn’t think there was any way he would get bumped out. I was teasing with him. I could tell the more teasing I was doing – the more pissed he got.”
 
Then Gary Densham ran a 4.83 and it knocked Capps down a spot.
 
“I thought to myself if he gets knocked out of this thing then it is going to get ugly,” Scelzi said. “He’ll probably knock me down. We got in and then he told me that he was going to be calm. He told me that whatever was going to happen – was going to happen.”