Bazemore looks to maintain momentum, qualifies 11th in Sonoma

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 15 of 23
FRAM-AUTOLITE NHRA NATIONALS
INFINEON RACEWAY
SONOMA, Calif.
Race Dates: July 29-31, 2005



SONOMA, Calif. (Jul 30, 2005) - Whit Bazemore and the Matco Tools Iron Eagle
Dodge Stratus R/T Funny Car team are picking up steam. Coming off two round
wins in Seattle last weekend, he looks for more at the Fram-Autolite NHRA
Nationals this weekend. He enters Sunday final eliminations in the 11th
qualifying position.

The 1999 Sonoma winner is happy with the team's qualifying effort: "It's
good. You have to keep in mind that we're still a relatively new team with
co-crew chiefs Dan (Olson) and Todd (Okuhara) coming on board a couple races
ago. So, we're still jelling and they're still feeling their way with the
race car and their combination.

"In qualifying, we're not yet in a position to go for the pole, but we're
working on that. The object coming into this race was trying to calm the
Matco Tools Dodge down a little bit and work on our consistency going down
the race track in qualifying, and that's what we did, so we feel good about
that."

Two-time season winner Bazemore's best qualifying run came Friday night in
the second session when he ran a 4.898-second ET at 316.38 mph. Bazemore's
other qualifying runs included a 9.041/78.40, a5.151/236.84 and a
4.942/312.28.

"We feel like we have a good race day combination," he added. "The car is
plenty safe and there is a lot of room to tune it up if we have to. All in
all, it's been a very positive weekend thus far, and everyone is doing a
good job."

Bazemore faces Tim Wilkerson in the first round of Sunday's Final
eliminations.