Denver: Whit Bazemore Friday notes

BAZEMORE FINISHES 13TH ON FRIDAY THE 13TH

MORRISON, Colo. (July 13, 2007) -- Whit Bazemore has experienced quite a bit of success on the mountain at Bandimere Speedway. The 20-time NHRA winner has raced his Funny Cars to two victories and five poles at the Denver-area track. With that in mind, he also knows the challenge of racing at the high altitude track.

The veteran racer drove his Matco Tools dragster to pass of 4.766 seconds at 307.86 mph on Friday evening at Bandimere Speedway to earn the provisional No. 13 qualifying position. The Matco-backed rail lost traction on Friday's opening effort and slowed to a 7.040-second pass.

"The thing had a good run going for the first pass, but it was just a little too much for those conditions," crew chief Lee Beard said. "We dropped a cylinder on the night run at the step of the throttle."

Top Fuel qualifying resumes on Saturday afternoon with sessions scheduled for 2 and 5 p.m. (MT) at Bandimere Speedway. ESPN2 will televise two hours of qualifying highlights at 6 p.m. (ET).

-credit: dpm