Whit Bazemore and the Matco Tools team held steady Sunday at Infineon Raceway as the grueling six-race swing that took the NHRA pro’s from New Jersey to Northern California completed with the FRAM-Autolite Nationals. Bazemore remains seventh in the POWERade Top Fuel standings.
After qualifying fifth with a 4.582-second elapsed time on Friday afternoon, the 20-time NHRA winner was matched-up against second-year racer Hillary Will for the fourth time this season. Bazemore got a slight jump at the start in the Matco Tools rail, but his silver-and-blue dragster dropped a cylinder and slowed to a run of 6.533 seconds at 140.15 mph. Will sped to a pass of 4.656 at 321.58. It was the third quickest run of the round. Bazemore and the Matco Tools team now have a 13-13 mark this season.
“The way the scenario is playing out for the Countdown (to the Championship), we have to approach the next two races as it’s the championship, ” Bazemore said. “Cause for us, it is. We’re down to crunch time. It’s not the position we wanted to be in and we have to be perfect at Brainerd and Reading. It’s the kind of pressure we like to perform under. We work best under pressure. ”
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