Bazemore No. 3 in Friday Texas qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2004 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 20 of 23
O'REILLY NHRA FALL NATIONALS
TEXAS MOTORPLEX
DALLAS, TEXAS
RACE DATES: Sept. 24-26, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

BAZEMORE QUALIFIES NO. 3 ON FRIDAY IN TEXAS

ENNIS, Texas (Sept. 24, 2004) - Whit Bazemore posted two strong runs today
in qualifying for the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex,
placing himself No. 3 in the field, with his best pass a 4.834-second run at
322.04 mph. 

Crew chief Lee Beard and the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car
team have been working hard to get a handle on their hot-weather tune-up and
Bazemore's 4.924/313.07 lap in the first session in the heat - good for No.
2 in that round - was encouraging.

John Force claimed the No. 1 spot with a 4.784/324.20 run.

"It's been a really good day," said Bazemore. "The key to success is going
down the race track all the time and being consistent, and to be in the top
two or three in both sessions is a really good sign for the Matco Tools
team. Lee Beard and the guys are on it.

"First round was in the heat and that was exciting to get down the track and
be second," he added. "Any time you're in the top two or three consistently
it's a good thing. Obviously we would have liked to have been low
(qualifier) tonight, but the car moved around quite a bit down track. It's
very, very hard to see. As it is, we may have turned a 4.82 into a 4.83, but
we weren't going to run a .78. We're pretty happy with that.

"It looks like tomorrow we'll be able to work on our race-day setup a little
bit and hopefully get some hot weather and get a good feel for race-day
conditions."

Two more rounds of qualifying are set for Saturday.

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