Bazemore No. 8 in Friday Topeka Qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 9 of 23
O'REILLY SUMMER NATIONALS
HEARTLAND PARK TOPEKA (Kans.)
Race Date: May 23-25

AFTER TWO ROUNDS OF QUALIFYING

BAZEMORE QUICK IN FIRST ROUND, QUALIFIES NO. 8 IN SECOND

TOPEKA, Kan. (May 23, 2003) -- After taking the No. 1 spot in the first
round with a 4.908-second elapsed time at 316.60 mph, Whit Bazemore ended up
qualifying his Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus R/T in No. 8 after the
second of four qualifying sessions, clocking in with a 4.867-second elapsed
time at 321.57 mph.

"There's still tomorrow," he said. "We're a little disappointed because we
felt we were in a very good position to end up low qualifier tonight, being
that we ran last and we had the Matco Tools Dodge sitting up there on the
starting line with a pretty heavy tune-up in it. We just missed on the
tune-up a little bit and we slowed down. We didn't run what we intended to
run, so we ended up with an .86, which is disappointing. Still, to put it
into perspective, compared to the drama of qualifying last week, we're way
ahead of where we were then. So we're in a position where we can improve
tomorrow, and that's what we intend to do."