Championship Drag Racing

O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals
Houston, TX
(March 30-April 1)

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Driver Profile

Whit Bazemore

Houston, Saturday: While Mother Nature stole the show on Saturday at Houston Raceway Park, Whit Bazemore made history becoming just the 15^th racer in NHRA history to qualify No. 1 in both Top Fuel and Funny Car. Saturday’s racing action was washed out due to persistent rain showers, so Bazemore’s 4.514-second blast from Friday earned the Matco Tools driver his 30^th career pole.

Entering the race third in the POWERade Top Fuel standings, the longtime Funny Car competitor paced the field with a Lee Beard tune-up as Bazemore blasted the Matco Tools dragster to a performance of 4.514 seconds at 326.87 mph. It was the quickest and fastest pass of the weekend. It is the 21^st time that Bazemore and Beard have earned the pole as driver/crew chief. With the accomplishment, Bazemore joins an elite group of 15 drivers that include past champions such as Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, Kenny Bernstein and Gary Scelzi who have earned the top qualifying position in both Top Fuel and Funny Car.

“We’re disappointed not to have ran on Saturday,” Bazemore said. “We’d much rather have lost the top spot and gotten the track time. We’re excited though. It was the perfect run for those conditions. We’ll be ready for Sunday. We have the option to run further back in the order. Hopefully, we can continue winning rounds and improve on our results.”

“It was nice to finally outrun out teammates (Rod Fuller) this season,” Beard joked.

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