Bazemore qualifies 4th in Gainesville

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 3 of 23
MAC TOOLS GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE (Fla.) RACEWAY
SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 2003

FINAL QUALIFYING:

BAZEMORE QUALIFIES FOURTH IN GAINESVILLE

After four rounds of qualifying, Whit Bazemore, in the Matco Tools Iron
Eagle Dodge Stratus R/T, ends up as No. 4 qualifier, with a 4.835-second lap
at 321.88 mph, set yesterday. Today's runs in the heat of the day resulted
in a tire-smoking 6.825/123.76 in the first session, and a 5.583/175.19 in
the final qualifying round.

WHIT BAZEMORE, MATCO TOOLS IRON EAGLE DODGE STRATUS R/T: "The potential was
certainly there to run the best run of the weekend (in the final round),
which is what we were trying to do. We changed the weight balance on the car
a little bit. It's a new body with this Dodge, so we're still finding where
we are with it and the front end just came up at half track. I hung with it
for a while because it was really running well but then it kept coming up
and wasn't coming back down. It gets to the point where, number one, you're
not very comfortable, and, number two, you're probably not going to run
quicker than an .83, so there's no point in risking damage to the car, so we
shut it off." ON RUNNING AGAINST CRUZ PREDREGON IN THE FIRST ROUND: "We feel
really good for tomorrow. We're here; we're ready to race. We have a great
team, a good running car and it's exciting that both my teammates (Gary
Scelzi and Scotty Cannon) are in the show, because we've had some problems.
I think that the whole Schumacher organization is looking good for tomorrow.
We're not here to be runner-up; we're gunning for a win. We'd like nothing
more than to put a Matco Tools Dodge in the winner's circle at a Mac Tools
race. It would be pretty good."

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