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Whit Bazemore said his runner-up finish to
Phil Burkart was the result of a "freak breakage
that made the car drop a bunch of cylinders
and then finally kick some rods out." He confessed
that if he still had been operating his own
team, he would have lifted, "but Don Schumacher
is paying the bills and he pays us to win races,
so we really don't worry about the car."
Tony Pedregon earned his first No. 1 Funny
Car qualifier label as an independent owner.
He said his preseason test data from the track
proved invaluable, adding "what makes it more
astonishing is that we did it in just two qualifying
sessions. We tested well here, and it paid off.
This is a result of teamwork. I didn't do it
alone. But we did it on our own.
He faced former boss John force in the second
round, after defeating Jim Head. Force had eliminated
Pedregon's brother and business partner, Cruz.
He said he was looking forward to the match-up,
no matter who won between Cruz and Force.
"I'm a machine," he said. "I've had to race
my boss, my brother, total strangers. I treat
all my customers the same -- I send them all
home unhappy."
The Quaker State-sponsored Pedregon ended up
unhappier than he wanted to be. He smoked the
tires against Force and said the clutch had
gotten too hot when he and the team warmed up
the car before the round.
Las Vegas remains the only stop on the 23-race
POWERade Drag Racing Series tour at which six-time
champion Warren Johnson never has won. Vinnie
Fourcade, making his first Pro Stock start,
upset him in the opening round.
After Ron Capps defeated first FC opponent Tony
Barton, he joked, "I
think it's been 1970 since we won a round."
The Skoal-sponsored driver hadn't won a round
with his new Monte Carlo
this year and hadn't advanced past Round 1 since
last September's race
at Chicago. He had 11 first-round losses and
one DNQ in the previous 14
events. He lost to Eric Medlen in the second
round Sunday.
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