SILLY SEASON IS WHAT
THEY CALL IT IN NASCAR

Notes by Darr Hawthorne
Photos by Zak Hawthorne

We took the time to cruise the pits at Las Vegas to ask some drivers, crew chiefs, and owners what was going on for them in 2003.

Whit Bazemore, Matco Tools Funny Car: "There are a few things for me to resolve, but (Don) Schumacher1s made me a real good offer so I'm 90-percent sure I'm going to be back there. We are going to have some things different, which will be good. We'll have Lee (Beard) back... we've got a great team. We have some weaknesses and we are going to address them -- things that will really help our performance on the race track quite a bit."

Asked about the addition of Wes Cerny to the Schumacher team, Bazemore said, "I don't think he's going to be much a part of the funny car deal; it'll be Lee, Mike Neff, and Ronnie Thompson... not much is changing there."

Then asked if he felt that the addition of Scotty Cannon to the team was a detriment to his team's performance, to which Bazemore commented, "You could make that argument that it hurt us a little bit early on because adding a second car is a really big job. Mike Neff got the great opportunity for him to go run Scotty's car, but I think not having Mike (Beard's assistant) hurt us rather than helped us. If you look at the big picture, having a second car is going to really be a benefit."

Is there another racecar being added to Schumacher Racing? Whit said, "There may be, I don't know anything about that."

Bazemore smoked the tires in Vegas, pedaled it and smoked again handing the second round win to Ron Capps.

CORY MAC IS TRYING TO HAVE FUN

The popular SoCal driver's future is uncertain with the Henkelmen/Baca team now that David Baca (photo above) has begun to field his own dragster, and Cory Mac had this to say about his thoughts for next season. "This is a tough time for me right now, 'cause I'd hate to disappear again for another year, but the biggest part is not to let it effect me mentally on the racetrack...when we've had fun in the past, the car does well on Sunday.

"I've tried real hard this year to make it a good deal for David (Baca), but at the same time thinking that either they were going to find financing for a second car or I'd be able to. I think we have enough (money) to be able to run some races next year, but not enough (for the entire season) and I refuse to run a limited schedule... if I can't (drive) I'll think of something else to do."

Asked what it would take for him to run a "frugal" 2003 season, McClenathan answered, "It would take about a million and a half to do it the right way. Some guys spend more, but I know how to do as much with less."

Cory Mac rattled the tires in his first round loss to Rhonda Hartman.