Don Schumacher, owner of both Funny Cars
in the Atlanta final, raided his U.S. Army
Top Fuel team to provide scuffed slicks
for Whit Bazemore's car. Bazemore's crew
chief, Lee Beard, said he had only new "sticker"
tires in his trailer and didn't want to
run them on the hot Atlanta strip. |
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Crew chief Lee Beard (far left) and driver
Whit Bazemore both confirmed there was something
wrong with their engine when they went to the
line against Scelzi. Bazemore said it was idling
about 400-500 rpm too high and the number-one
cylinder was out right from the start. "It may
not have looked like it, but we had a little
luck on that one," he said.
PRO STOCK
The Pro Stock contingent also got into record-setting
mode when Larry Morgan (far lane) earned his
first number-one starting spot in more than
13 years with a Friday night pass of 6.796 seconds
that also set a new track e.t. record. Morgan's
fifth pole of his career, and the first top
qualifying effort for a Dodge in Pro Stock since
Feb. 2003, also ended Greg Anderson's top qualifier
streak at 11 races, indefinitely preserving
Bob Glidden's incredible streak of 23 consecutive
number-one spots in 1986-88. Perhaps fittingly,
Anderson faced off against Morgan in the Pro
Stock final, where Anderson overcame a .031
holeshot to post his fifth-straight victory
this year. At 6.850 seconds, Morgan's worst
pass of the entire weekend came at the worst
possible time.
Mike Edwards put run numbers five through nine
on his new Jerry Haas-built '04 Firebird at
Atlanta. After picking the car up on Monday
before the race, Edwards spent two days testing
in St. Louis, but managed to make only four
passes due to inclement weather. He qualified
the new ride 14th, but lost to number-three
qualifier Anderson in the opening round.
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