Bazemore Cuts Points Deficit at Denver

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 13 of 23
MOPAR MILE-HIGH NHRA NATIONALS
Bandimere Speedway
Denver, Colorado
Race Date: July 18-20, 2003
DENVER, Colo. (July 20, 2003) - Whit Bazemore benefited from his teammate
Scotty Cannon's defeat of Funny Car points leader Tony Pedregon in the first
round of eliminations and by advancing to the second round to cut his points
deficit to 124 out of first place (1143-1019).

Driving the Matco Tools-sponsored Mopar 'Bling-Bling' Dodge Stratus Funny
Car here at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals, Bazemore sent Terry Haddock
home packing in the first round, ousting him with a 5.118-second pass at
290.94 mph under the heat of the afternoon Colorado sun.

The second round found the two-time winner here at Bandimere Speedway facing
Pedregon's team owner John Force. Force lucked out with his .017 reaction
time to Bazemore's .084, which could easily have resulted in a red light,
but that's all it took for Force to grab the victory with a 5.131-second
pass at 290.69 mph to Bazemore's 5.202/278.23.

"We had a great opportunity to make up a lot of points," said Bazemore.
"Scotty did a tremendous job in the first round going down the race track
and taking him (Pedregon) out and we were just a little bit too conservative
against Force. It's a fine line between under-performing and over-performing
and smoking the tires. We had to go down the race track and we could have
been quite a bit more aggressive as it turns out with our Matco Tools Dodge
this weekend and been more competitive against Force. As it was, the numbers
weren't there and we got beat.

"I had my best light (reaction time) of the weekend," he added, "and it was
equal to my teammate Gary Scelzi's in the first round, and Gary and I
virtually had the same 60-foot times. It's frustrating, trust me. I want to
be the best all the time at everything I do."

The NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series heads to Seattle next weekend for the
CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Pacific Raceways on July 25-27.