Bazemore quickest on Saturday in Vegas tests

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
PRE-SEASON TESTING
THE STRIP AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
JAN. 21-23, 2005



BAZEMORE IS QUICKEST ON SATURDAY, FOURTH OVERALL AT VEGAS TESTS

LAS VEGAS (Jan. 23, 2005) - Whit Bazemore, in the purple-bodied Matco Tools
Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car tuned by Lee Beard, was the quickest down
the quarter-mile on Saturday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in
pre-season testing for the 2005 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series. His
4.750-second ET at 328.06 mph was the best of the day, and the fourth
quickest of the weekend.

Bazemore's other strong passes included a 4.759/317.34 and a 4.798/326.32.

"It was a really positive weekend for the Matco Tools team," said Bazemore.
"We had a lot of new stuff, we had some new guys, and we had other things
that we were testing on the 2004 car. It's been really good and we'll go to
Phoenix testing (next weekend) and run. Hopefully that track will be not as
good as here and that will give us some time on a less-than-stellar race
track and, quite honestly, that's what we need to concentrate on.

"The real positives this weekend are that our team is working smoothly, the
new players are doing, all in all, a really, really good job. We're pumped
up, and Scelzi's guys did real well, and Capps' team with the Brut car did
fantastic for being a brand-new team. They did really well and the
information shared among all of us was really good.

"It's going to be a fun year. Capps is going to fit right in with Scelzi and
me personality-wise, so we feel really good about that."