BAZEMORE DRIVES MATCO TOOLS RAIL TO NO. 12 POSITION

NORWALK, Ohio (June 29, 2007) – Whit Bazemore raced his Matco Tools dragster to the No. 12 qualifying position Friday evening at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports park with a run of 4.617-seconds.

On his opening run of the weekend, the 20-time NHRA winner powered to a pass of 4.617 seconds at 324.90 mph to finish ninth in the 16-car order. There are 18 cars attempting to make the cut for the inaugural Norwalk event. Bazemore’s Matco Tools car lost traction on Friday’s second qualifying attempt and slowed to an 11-second elapsed time.

“We shot ourselves in the foot on that second run,” crew chief Lee Beard said. “We were too aggressive for what the track would hold. We didn’t have enough clutch on the first run. We’ll come back on Saturday and try to move up.”

Top Fuel qualifying resumes on Saturday afternoon with sessions scheduled for 1 and 3:30 p.m. (ET) at the Norwalk facility. ESPN2 will televise two hours of qualifying highlights at 11 p.m. (ET) on Saturday evening.

Q1 4.617 ET, 324.90 MPH No. 9
Q2 11.244 ET, 72.42 MPH No. 12