Championship Drag Racing

ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals
Las Vegas, NV
(October 20-23)

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Driver Profile

Whit Bazemore Funny Car

Chicago, Sunday: Whit Bazemore looked like he was en route to a strong performance at this weekend's Ameriquest Mortgage Nationals at Route 66 Raceway after posting for good runs to qualify seventh.

But a mechanical problem in his first-round match-up against title contender Eric Medlen put the driver of the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus R/T Funny Car on the sidelines for the rest of the event.

Bazemore launched .025 of a second ahead of the John Force Racing driver and was in front at half-track when the problem occurred, resulting in a small fire which caused him to slow to a 4.962/261.32 pass while Medlen crossed the finish line first with a 4.811/323.81.

"It broke an exhaust rocker arm," he explained. "Drove it a while, because we were ahead and what happens then is it just gives the motor way too much boost, makes it very, very lean and cylinder pressure goes sky high, and it didn't like that.

"So, it blew up and we didn't win the race.

"Cars are always replaceable. You always hurt stuff; it's irrelevant. We don't care about hurting the car, it's about winning the round and continuing to improve our team - we've come a long way - and try to make our team as perfect as we can.

"The hardest thing for us to take is not winning the rounds."

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