Whit Bazemore and the Matco Tools Top Fuel team continued its charge towards a position in NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship by racing to the provisional No. 2 qualifying position Friday at Bristol Dragway. The 2002 Bristol Funny Car winner used a time of 4.574-seconds to finish second in the 16-car order.
Sitting ninth in the POWERade Top Fuel standings, just seven points behind eighth-place racer Melanie Troxel, the veteran racer powered to an opening run of 4.594 seconds at 323.50 mph to claim the third quickest run of the first qualifying session. Bazemore then used a tune-up from crew chief Lee Beard to race his Matco-backed rail to a stout 4.547, 327.43 effort to earn the provisional No. 2 qualifying position. He has one pole this season (Houston) and has qualified fourth three times.
“It’s good, ” Bazemore said. “We’re on the rebound. The whole team is fed up, so we’re working hard to make ourselves competitive. Lee Beard has been making good decisions with the tune-up. We went to the semis last weekend and I drove well. We need to build on that momentum and put ourselves in contention and to get our car and team to work at its full potential. ”
Top Fuel qualifying resumes on Saturday afternoon with sessions scheduled for 1 and 3:30 p. m. (ET) at the Bristol facility. ESPN2 will televise two hours of qualifying highlights at 4 p. m. (ET) on Saturday afternoon.
Q1 4.594 ET, 323.50 MPH No. 3
Q2 4.547 ET, 327.43 MPH No. 2
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