Brainerd: Whit Bazemore final summary

Bazemore exits Brainerd in first round

BRAINERD, Minn. (Aug. 15, 2004) - Whit Bazemore made an early exit in his Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car in final eliminations of the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals today, losing in the first round to Tommy Johnson Jr.

Johnson took the win with a 4.978/305.77 pass over Bazemore's 5.004/307.46.

"Basically, we just got outrun and there's just no room for error," said No. 5 qualifier Bazemore, who fell to third in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car point standings, behind leader John Force and his teammate Gary Scelzi, who was runner-up today after defeating Force on a holeshot advantage.

"Everyone on the Matco Tools team is obviously disappointed. Going out in the first round was certainly not what we had planned for the day and the race. The car was set up to go quicker than that and it didn't.

"We kind of know a little bit about what went wrong. It's just the way it goes sometimes."

-dsr-