Bazemore qualifies 12h in Reading

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2004 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
ROUND 21 OF 23
LUCAS OIL NHRA NATIONALS
MAPLE GROVE RACEWAY
READING, PA.
RAIN-POSTPONED RACE DATES: OCT. 8-10, 2004


BAZEMORE TAKES NO. 12 IN FINAL READING QUALIFYING

READING, Pa. (Oct. 9, 2004) - Whit Bazemore overcame some equipment issues
to qualify No. 12 for the re-scheduled Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals today in the
Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car. Bazemore posted his best
pass of four in the final qualifying session, of 4.871/294.43, following a
4.970/281.95, a 4.910/312.42 and a 4.927/296.57. Each was a respectable pass
when you look at the numbers, but they do not compare to Eric Medlen's No. 1
qualifying pass of 4.741/324.12.

"The car has something going on with it," Bazemore said. "It's very unstable
near the finish line. It's a little bit uncomfortable. We don't know why it
is. It was on a much better pass than the numbers show in that last run.

"It hasn't been a great weekend for us. On the bright side it's been a lot
better than last year was for us," he said of his DNQ in 2003.

"The run this afternoon was tough because we were only qualified 14th going
into it and we had a chance to not be in the show," he added. "We were
forced to make a decision to run the older Goodyear tire. The NHRA had just
made available the new tire an hour or so before that round. Due to the
efforts of the Matco Tools team and our car owner Don Schumacher, NHRA
released a supply of the new tire, the 1430.

"Unfortunately we couldn't run it because of the situation we were in
regarding our qualifying position."

"We're excited that tomorrow we will be on the new tire. It's a better tire
and apparently it seems to be safer. We want to thank Goodyear for making
the effort to develop something that works better for us and I'll be a lot
more at ease running the new tire tomorrow than I was this afternoon,
knowing that we had one more run to make on a tire that we had had problems
with this weekend, both on our car and our teammate's car (Johnny Gray).

"It's a tense situation and we appreciate the effort Goodyear and the NHRA
are making to get it resolved."

Bazemore will face his teammate Gary Scelzi in the first round. With
Scelzi's and Bazemore's teammate Johnny Gray meeting Del Worsham in the
first round, it will be an interesting scenario as to who will leave here in
second place in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series. Worsham (qualified
sixth) is in second place to John Force (qualified second). Force needs to
leave here with 277 points more than Worsham to collect his 13th Funny Car
championship tomorrow.

With Worsham, Bazemore, Scelzi, Medlen (qualified No. 1) and even Gary
Densham in the running for second place, the first round results could make
a major difference.