BAZEMORE IS NO. 11 IN SONOMA QUALIFYING

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
Contact: Judy Stropus

SONOMA, Calif. (July 29, 2006) - Last week's Seattle Funny Car winner Whit Bazemore pulled out four good runs to qualify No. 11 for the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
The slowest pass for the driver of the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Charger R/T came in the opening session, a 5.612-second elapsed time at 184.83 mph, which was followed by a 4.966/265.59 in the evening session, a 4.900/319.75, and finally the stout 4.857/322.73, which earned him No. 11.

"It's good, it's not great," said Bazemore. "Today we had third best run in each of the lanes we were in. What hurt us overall was last night - the only time we had when the conditions existed for an opportunity to be in the top three or four. We had a problem last night, but it's OK. We can run well in the heat." That was demonstrated in his two passes today.

"We feel good about eliminations tomorrow," he added.

Bazemore faces his teammate Ron Capps in the opening round of eliminations, whom he defeated in the final round last Sunday in Seattle.