Commerce: Whit Bazemore Saturday summary

Bazemore No. 2 for third time in '04 at Atlanta

COMMERCE, Ga. (May 15, 2004) - Driving the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car, Whit Bazemore added two more solid qualifying passes today to his report card, giving him a 4 for 4 record for consistent qualifying laps this weekend. He remained No. 2, based on his Friday night pass of 4.797/324.20. This marks his third No. 2 for the season so far.

Today's rounds included a 4.926/305.29 (second quickest of the third session) and a 4.891/305.49 in the final attempt.

"It was a good day," said Bazemore, winner here in 2002. "The weekend as a whole has been really positive for the team. Today, we were consistent and we were within a couple of hundredths of low E.T. of the day. Lee (Beard, crew chief) is still finding his way back to the tune-up after spending most of the season trying to compensate for a mechanical problem that we really didn't know existed until this week. Whenever that happens it's really hard for a crew chief because he's trying to tune the car for the conditions and other variables such as a new Goodyear tire, and at the same time, unbeknownst to him, there is a mechanical problem that is making the car very inconsistent.

"He was trying to compensate for that at the same time and it was puzzling. So, we're crawling back. We've had a great weekend so far. It's a great example of Lee's ability and the ability of everyone else on the team that we're this competitive again and consistent after making a major change on the car."

The two-time U.S. Nationals Champion will face Ron Capps in the first round of eliminations tomorrow, which begin at 11 a.m.

-dsr-