Bazemore advances to quarterfinal in Houston

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 4 of 23
O'REILLY NHRA SPRING NATIONALS
HOUSTON RACEWAY
Race Dates: April 8-10, 2005


BAYTOWN, Texas (April 10, 2005) - Funny Car points leader Whit Bazemore
struggled to qualify for the O'Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway,
earning only the 12th spot after four attempts, but the Matco Tools Iron
Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car team made up for it in the first round of
eliminations by defeating Don Schumacher Racing teammate and No. 5 qualifier
Gary Scelzi on a holeshot advantage.

Bazemore crossed the finish stripe ahead of Scelzi with a 4.842/317.34 pass
to Scelzi's quicker but losing 4.795/323.19. Reaction times: Scelzi .114,
Bazemore .064.

The second round against Bazemore's longtime rival and second-in-points John
Force was vital for Bazemore to win to hold on to the points lead. It was
not to be, despite Bazemore's better reaction time of .059 to Force's .076,
as Force drove around him to claim the victory with a 4.781/324.83 to
Bazemore's 4.818/321.12.

Bazemore dropped to second in Funny Car points, 14 behind Force.

"(Crew chief Lee) Beard and the boys did a tremendous job today to turn this
Matco Tools team around from what we admit was a pretty frustrating
qualifying effort Friday and Saturday," said Bazemore, "and the car just
didn't respond to anything we did in qualifying. Lee made some major, major
changes overnight and we had to run our teammate Gary Scelzi in the first
round.

"We were fortunate to get around him. The tune-up proved itself and Lee had
a car he could tune against Force (in the second round). We tuned it up, it
ran better, but we don't have our new tune-up perfected yet, and we may have
left a little on the table. But Force's team did a tremendous job and beat
us. That's how it goes.

"I did my normal thing," said Bazemore of his deep-staging in the first
round against Scelzi, while Scelzi shallow-staged going for a quicker ET and
lane choice in the second round. "I go in two or three hundredths on race
day. That's just the way it is. It's Funny Car racing and you kind of have
to do that. 

"The reaction time number is often irrelevant because of staging, but my
goal is to be the same every race and I roll in typically two or three
hundredths (of a second) deeper than our qualifying runs, but it's not five
or six hundredths, like some guys, so it doesn't even matter. I don't even
think about. I just go in and do my thing and we won a round today when our
car hadn't gone down the track on Saturday and half of Friday. It could have
been worse."

Next up is the NHRA Nationals at The Strip in Las Vegas April 14-17.

NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS:
1. John Force, 303
2. Whit Bazemore, 289
3. Robert Hight, 268
4. Tommy Johnson Jr., 231
5. Cruz Pedregon, 230
6. Eric Medlen,, 219
7. Del Worsham, 215
8. Phil Burkart Jr., 211
9. Bob Gilbertson, 207
10. Gary Scelzi, 196
11. Ron Capps, 193