O'Reilly Fall Nationals : Bazemore moves to No. 5 in Dallas final qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 21 of 23
O'Reilly Fall Nationals
Texas Motorplex
Ennis, Texas
Race Dates: Oct. 10-12, 2003

ENNIS, Texas (Oct. 11, 2003) - Whit Bazemore and his Lee Beard-led Matco
Tools Iron Eagle Dodge team stepped up to the plate today in the final
qualifying round under a cloud cover, posting a stout 4.867-second pass at
319.94 mph to put him solidly in the top half of the field, in No. 5. In
today's third qualifying round in the heat of the day, Bazemore also clocked
in strong, at 4.988 seconds at 312.28 mph.

In this final qualifying session, Baze was paired with his rival Tony
Pedregon, who smoked the tires at the top end and slowed to a 7.277-second
run, dropping him from No. 5 to No. 6. This gave Bazemore an ever-so-slight
psychological edge going into final eliminations tomorrow, as each is vying
for his first career Funny Car championship this season, with three races
left.

"We're a lot happier now," said Bazemore, who is 94 points behind Pedregon,
"having been down the track today twice and posting the second low E.T. of
the session, so that's pretty good. All in all, this was a good day for the
Matco Tools Dodge team. We moved up a little bit in qualifying, which is
always important."

The adrenaline always pumps harder when your fiercest rival is in the next
lane. "I didn't see him on the actual run," Bazemore admitted. "You don't
see the other car unless you're way behind and today we were never behind.
Yeah, it's nice when you get the win light against those (John Force) guys,
but the only day that really matters for us with the win light coming on is
tomorrow.

"It's important for the Matco Tools Dodge team that we always go out there
and are competitive every single time we run the car," he added. "(Crew
chief Lee) Beard and (co-crew chief Dan) Olson and all the guys have made
this car perfect and we're in a good position for tomorrow."

Bazemore will face Tommy Johnson Jr. in first round of final eliminations
tomorrow.