Bazemore No. 2 after 2 qualifying rounds in 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

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501, cell 203-243-2438

BAZEMORE QUALIFIES NO. 2 BEFORE MOUNTAIN RAINS CAME

DENVER, Colo. (July 18, 2003) - Whit Bazemore held the No. 1 qualifying
position for a short time in tonight's second round of qualifying with his
5.061-second elapsed time at a speed of 300.00 mph. Although his speed in
the Matco Tools Iron Eagle-sponsored Mopar 'Bling Bling' Dodge Stratus was
the fastest of the day, he had to settle for second spot behind Tim
Wilkerson's 5.007/297.16. Two Funny Cars didn't get to qualify as the
remainder of this qualifying session was cancelled due to rain and
lightning. 

Bazemore's first round of qualifying went up in smoke.

"The first run was in the heat of the day and we just smoked the tires; we
were a little too aggressive at about two and a half seconds into the run.
No big deal, really. We were on the edge, and we were just over the edge a
little bit. It's very important that we ran well tonight. That will allow us
to concentrate on race day setups for tomorrow and try to be consistent and
quick on what will be a very tricky race track.

"We're at about 6000 feet here at Bandimere and that altitude presents a
very specific set of problems that we don't encounter any other time during
the season. With the thin air there's a lack of pressure on the race car as
it goes down the track and that translates into a lack of downforce. So,
it's very important to have your downforce maximized on your race car. We're
fortunate having Dodge come on board with the Stratus R/T; we're in a
position to have significantly more downforce than we had last time we were
here with the car we ran last year. I think that will certainly play to our
favor tomorrow and Sunday on race day. It doesn't guarantee we're going to
win; it does give us a little bit of an advantage that helps us be
competitive with some of the other teams out there."

When asked if he was disappointed by not being low qualifier, he responded,
"Well, yeah, but when we ran 5.06 it was low at the time. We didn't think it
would be No. 1 for very long. Honestly, Lee (Beard, crew chief) thought it
would be good for fourth or fifth and I kind of agreed with that, but as it
is we're No. 2."

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