Bazemore No. 14 in Vegas qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
No. 21 of 23
ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas, Nev.
Race Dates: Oct. 21-23, 2005

LAS VEGAS (Oct. 22, 2005) - Whit Bazemore, winner here at The Strip at Las
Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this season in the fifth event of the 2005 NHRA
POWERade Drag Racing Series, qualified No. 14 for Sunday's ACDelco Las Vegas
NHRA Nationals, driving the Matco Tools/Las Vegas Centennial 2005 Dodge
Stratus Funny Car.

Although disappointed, he's not discouraged, as he won in April from the No.
12 position. 

"I'm disappointed right now," said Bazemore of his 4.821-second ET at 321.88
mph, set in today's third qualifying round. "In the big picture we look
good. We ran well this morning and it was earlier in the afternoon, in the
heat."

In this evening's round under cooler conditions, Bazemore recorded a
4.826/322.19 in the quickest NHRA field in NHRA history. "Our performance
earlier is more indicative of what we should be able to do in the first
round of eliminations on Sunday," he said. "Tonight, these were great
conditions. (Co-crew chiefs) Dan (Olson) and Todd (Okuhara) tuned this thing
up and it just did not respond.

"We ran a 4.87, 4.83, 4.82, and 4.82 and we were out there trying to be low,
trying to run a mid- to low 4.70, and it just didn't respond. It's
frustrating, but, like I said, we're not going to be racing in the
conditions we had tonight, so, in all honesty, it's really irrelevant.

"But we like to qualify in the top two or three all the time and we're not.
So we're a little disappointed."

Bazemore faces Cruz Pedregon in first round of eliminations on Sunday.