Bazemore qualifies 11th in rainy Bristol

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 6 of 23
O'REILLY THUNDER VALLEY NHRA NATIONALS
BRISTOL (Tenn.) DRAGWAY
Race Dates: April 29-May 1, 2005


BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 30, 2005) - Whit Bazemore qualified the Matco Tools
Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car in the bottom half of the field for the
fourth time in six races this year for the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals
at Bristol Dragway today. Only one round of qualifying was held, as the
other three were washed out by rain.

With only one round completed, the top 10 in POWERade Drag Racing Series
Funny Car points were assured a place in the field, with the rest of the
field made up of those who qualified today.

Posting a 4.948/308.78 pass for the 11th spot, Funny Car points leader
Bazemore is not disappointed, as his win in Las Vegas two weeks ago came
from the bottom half of the field. His other win, in Gainesville, Fla., came
from No. 8, and he is the only two-time winner this season.

"It's very frustrating and you feel bad for (President and General Manager
of Bristol Motor Speedway and Dragway) Jeff Byrd and the staff here in
Bristol," said Bazemore of the weather conditions here. "They certainly
deserve to have better weather than what they've gotten this weekend, as we
all do.

"That's part of the sport sometimes. In our case, we're satisfied that we
went down the race track in light of some of the struggles we've had this
year, but we really didn't run that quick.

"The good thing for us is we have a team - the Matco Tools team, led by Lee
Beard - that, given one baseline run, can certainly tune the car from that,
and we have a team that knows how to get performance out of it.

"I'll sleep well tonight. We'll be very confident. It's kind of good because
the both races we won this year we've come from the back, and now we're
11th. That's not much better than 12th. We feel good, we like being in the
back. We'll just sneak up on them and catch them by surprise."

Bazemore faces Tommy Johnson Jr., in first round of eliminations, which
begin at noon on Sunday.