Madison: Whit Bazemore Friday summary

Bazemore No. 3 on Friday at Gateway

MADISON, ILL. (June 25, 2004) - Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus driver Whit Bazemore and crew chief Lee Beard took advantage of the near perfect conditions on Gateway International Raceway's quarter-mile today to take the No. 1 spot in the first Funny Car qualifying session with a track-record breaking pass, in both elapsed time and speed, of 4.850 seconds at 317.79 mph.

The conditions in the second session, however, turned out to be superior to the first, and Bazemore's track records were steadily eclipsed, first by Cruz Pedregon, then by Tommy Johnson Jr., and finally it was his teammate Gary Scelzi who took over as low qualifier, with new track elapsed time and speed records of 4.758 seconds at 329.34 mph.

Bazemore posted his best pass of the day in the second session, a 4.788/324.20, which placed him in the No. 3 position.

"The conditions are great," said Bazemore. "We have the best weather that we've ever had in the history of this race and the fact that it's at night is an added bonus.

"There was a great crowd today and they saw some really good Funny Car racing. Our teammates did a tremendous job. We'd love to be one-two; honestly, in any order. They threw down the gauntlet, so we've got to answer tomorrow. We should have the same conditions we had today, so the order could shake up some tomorrow."

Two more qualifying sessions are scheduled for tomorrow at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

-dsr-