Bazemore collects No. 9 in Houston qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 4 of 23
O'REILLY NHRA SPRING NATIONALS
Houston Raceway
Race Date: March 31-April 2, 2006



BAYTOWN, Texas (April 1, 2006) - Whit Bazemore and crew chief Brian Corradi
continue to make strides with the performance of the Matco Tools Iron Eagle
Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car in the 2006 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, as
was demonstrated during qualifying for the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at
Houston Raceway.

Bazemore held on to the No. 9 spot he maintained through the last three
sessions with the 4.818-second elapsed time at 312.50 mph he posted in the
final round today. His first attempt of the weekend produced his second
strongest run, of 4.821/323.19, good for No. 3 at the time.

The Matco Tools Dodge team struggled through the other two rounds, while
learning how to tune the car for the new tire mandated by NHRA at the last
event, posting a 9.984/90.69 and a 14.380/77.39.

"The Matco Tools Dodge is continuing to come around, but, like a lot of
other teams in Houston, we're really struggling with the narrow window of
performance that this new tire presents us," said Bazemore. "When you get it
figured out and it goes down the track, it's good. But the margin of where
the car will go down the track, at least for us, is very, very narrow, and
apparently for a lot of other people - witness the fact that so many cars
didn't go down the race track this weekend so far.

"As the top qualifiers (John Force, Robert Hight 1-2) have proved, when you
do have a handle on it, it's very strong running tire. It's up to us to
continue to test and try to figure the thing out.

"We're not in a good position where we're spending time in qualifying,
trying to improve the race car and trying to come up with a good combination
for race day. Unfortunately, this weekend we've been in a situation where
we're just trying to figure out how to get the thing to go down the track
from A to B without shaking or smoking the tires. In that regard, it's a
little frustrating.

"Like I said, we're making progress. We may test on Monday. What I can tell
you is the Matco Tools Dodge team pulls out all the stops and gives it the
very best effort that's possible. Ultimately, that's why we're going to be
successful."

Bazemore faces his old nemesis, Tony Pedregon, in first round of
eliminations on Sunday.