Pomona2: Whit Bazemore Friday summary

Winternationals re-started, Bazemore No. 12

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 27, 2004) - With temperatures in the 60s and the sun peeking through puffy clouds, the K&N Filters Winternationals picked up again after last week's rainout, with the second round of qualifying being completed on schedule today.

Whit Bazemore drove his Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus to a 4.966-second elapsed time at 264.70 mph, which was quicker and faster than last week, yet remained in the No. 12 spot. It wasn't a pretty run, as he lost a cylinder at 660 feet, but it helped the team collect data on a new engine combination.

"Conditions aren't that different than they were last week," said the 2003 Funny Car championship runner-up. "It's a little warmer and the air is a little dryer. Other than that, the track is still in really good shape. The NHRA prepped the track pretty well.

"We don't have a handle yet on this new combination we have," he added. "We're still trying to develop it. Today was kind of a tough day. If you went into today not really qualified, like we did, you still had to be somewhat conservative. It was important to go down the race track today. The fact that there was only one run made it difficult.

"If we were in a different position - say, if we had run much better last week - then we could have attacked today in a different way and it would have been a lot better for us. But because we had problems last week it kind of meant that we had problems today. We just were soft and dropped a cylinder just before half track and that's why we only ran a .96."

Two more qualifying rounds are scheduled for tomorrow at Pomona Raceway.

-dsr-