Bazemore Goes to No. 4 in Final Texas Qualifying
ENNIS, Texas (Sept. 25, 2004) - Following three outstanding qualifying passes this weekend for the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals, Whit Bazemore and the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car team stumbled a bit in the final qualifying pass and fell to No. 4 in the 16-car field, based on last night's run of 4.834/322.04.
Bazemore's 5.511/184.19 pass in the final round was a result of the tires hazing at half-track.
"We've had a good weekend," he said. "We were really pushing it hard that last run and the track just didn't hold what we were trying to do down track in the middle.
"I don't know if a .78 or .77 was going to be in the cards," he said, alluding to John Force's pole time of 4.784 seconds. "We were definitely trying to run quicker than our .83 which we ran at night. It just didn't hold it in the middle.
"We make a lot of power and our car historically has run very strongly in the middle of the race track and we make a lot of our elapsed time there and it just didn't happen this afternoon.
"All in all, it was not a bad effort for the Matco Tools team. The car's been consistent and it's done exactly what we expected it to, for the most part. I feel good about the effort we've made going into tomorrow."
Bazemore will face his teammate Johnny Gray, in Don Schumacher's Wonder Wagon, in first round of eliminations, which begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Courtesy Judy Stropus
Don Schumacher Racing
Bazemore's 5.511/184.19 pass in the final round was a result of the tires hazing at half-track.
"We've had a good weekend," he said. "We were really pushing it hard that last run and the track just didn't hold what we were trying to do down track in the middle.
"I don't know if a .78 or .77 was going to be in the cards," he said, alluding to John Force's pole time of 4.784 seconds. "We were definitely trying to run quicker than our .83 which we ran at night. It just didn't hold it in the middle.
"We make a lot of power and our car historically has run very strongly in the middle of the race track and we make a lot of our elapsed time there and it just didn't happen this afternoon.
"All in all, it was not a bad effort for the Matco Tools team. The car's been consistent and it's done exactly what we expected it to, for the most part. I feel good about the effort we've made going into tomorrow."
Bazemore will face his teammate Johnny Gray, in Don Schumacher's Wonder Wagon, in first round of eliminations, which begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Courtesy Judy Stropus
Don Schumacher Racing
posted by David @ 9:34 PM
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