Fri, Oct 16, 01:33 AM Team Winston Funny Car Whit Bazemore

Courtesy of Rob Goodman, Sports Marketing Enterprises

Memphis TEASER:Parts America Nationals

* Whit Bazemore enters the rescheduled Parts America Nationals in fifth place in the NHRA Winston Funny Car standings. He is locked in a tight race for a top-five finish in the points standings. With four races remaining in the season, Bazemore is 36 points out of fifth place and 128 points out of third place.

* Bazemore will be the No. 6 qualifier when NHRA Winston Drag Racing returns to Topeka, Kan. He covered the quarter-mile in 5.117 seconds at 303.84 mph. Bazemore will meet the No. 11 qualifier, Randy Anderson, in the first round of eliminations.

* One year ago at Topeka, Bazemore was the No. 2 qualifier and advanced to the semifinals where he was defeated by Randy Anderson.

* Bazemore was the No. 5 qualifier at Memphis, Tenn. In the Pennzoil Nationals eliminations, he defeated Glenn Mikres before losing to Tony Pedregon in the second round.

Bazemore prior to the Topeka rain-out:

"The rain-out was a good thing because I feel we're going back to Topeka as a better team with more knowledge based on what happened in Memphis. As disappointed as we were when the race was postponed, now we're actually glad it did and really looking forward to this weekend.

"Randy will be a tough first-round matchup, and he'll be really motivated because he probably feels like he owes us one from last June when we beat him in the final round to get our first career win. Plus it's his sponsor's race, and he probably feels he has something to prove. So it's going to be an exciting match up for both of us. Hopefully we'll have bright, sunny skies.