Bazemore moves into No. 8 in Gainesville qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 3 of 23
36TH ANNUAL NHRA GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE (Fla.) RACEWAY
Race Dates: March 18-20, 2005




GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 19, 2005) - Whit Bazemore and crew chief Lee Beard
had some hurdles to leap before they were able to capture the No. 8 spot in
qualifying for the Gatornationals this weekend.

The cold weather (40-some degrees) and overcast skies on Friday were issues,
as well as performance inconsistencies with the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge
Stratus Funny Car. Friday's numbers included a 12.138/68.85, followed by a
5.232/214.54. Today's session under sunlight and warmer conditions produced
only a 5.155/268.65.

Going into the final qualifying round, Bazemore was on the bump, in No. 16.
He managed to pull out a respectable 4.862/313.26 pass in that session,
which moved him into No. 8.

"It's been a hard weekend for us," said the two-time U.S. Nationals champion
who has never won in Gainesville. "The Matco Tools Dodge struggled the first
three runs and we were on the bump going into the last run. So the pressure
was on. The guys did a great job. We just had to go from A to B. In reality,
our last run was more like what our first run should have been.

"We're still in the top half. We have lane choice. We're just struggling.
The car had trouble adapting to the conditions here and is not reacting to
Lee's input consistently yet. Were working on it. We're testing a lot. We're
going to test here on Monday. We'll get it figured out where we're more
consistent and more competitive."

Bazemore will face Cruz Pedregon in first round of eliminations on Sunday.