"Can you believe that? It's unexplainable how in the world Doug or Schumacher or somebody else didn't knock that thing out of the park in these conditions," he said. "But that's what happens sometimes. Who knows? We could have run (4.)46 in the final and reset it. It's not important. Winning's important."

A testimony to Brandon Bernstein's phenomenal start to this year is the fact that it wasn't until this event that he was bumped from the top 10 in the standings. That was 11 races since his mid-May accident at Englishtown, which he entered and exited in second place. The irony is Brandon Bernstein fell from the top 10 because of his father, Kenny, who was 19th after his first substitute job (May 22-25 at Topeka).

The Funny Car class had its share of excitement.

Gary Scelzi twice Sunday rewrote the Funny Car national speed record (328.06 miles an hour) he set here June 1. First he defeated Cruz Pedregon with a 4.768-second elapsed time at 328.70 mph. That served to back-up the 329.18 national-record speed he recorded in eliminating Del Worsham. Scelzi lost in the semifinals to Burkhart. But Scelzi and crew chief ike Neff are pondering how soon they realistically can top the 330 barrier.

In the final round, Pedregon made a solo pass of 4.769 seconds in his Castrol Syntec Mustang, after advancing with victories over Bob Bode then teammate Gary Densham and boss John Force. "I feel like a blackjack player in Vegas who has a 16 and the dealer just busted," Pedregon said.

He certainly had to feel the sting of criticism, as neither Densham nor Force posed any threat in the opposite lane. "I ask no questions. I know it's teamwork. We pull together as

ADVERTISEMENT

a team," Pedregon said. "We ran good when we needed to. Whether it's against Densham or John or a total stranger, I've got to race the same. We did whatever it took."

Suppose, though, that Force might have had a separate agenda. If crew chief Austin Coil gave him an extra-aggressive tune-up and he could post a national record, imagine the competitive satisfaction he and his team would get from squeezing Bazemore from both directions. If the idea backfired -- and the Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang did give a pyrotechnic pop as it smoked the tires -- then Team Force benefits, too.

The strategy paid off. Bazemore came to Chicago seven points ahead of Tony Pedregon and 193 ahead of Force. He left 69 behind Pedregon and just 154 ahead of Force with four more races remaining in the 23-event schedule.

Bazemore had the Funny Car points lead for the first time in his career. But he got to enjoy it for less than a week. Cory Lee scored an upset victory over Bazemore in the first round. And Tony Pedregon capitalized by earning his seventh victory of the season.

Bazemore's Matco Tools Dodge Stratus coasted to a disappointing 5.172-second finish at 235.97 miles an hour to Lee's 4.960/304.12.