Sun, 8 Oct 2000, 03:50 PM MEMPHIS - Funny Car Round 2 Eliminations

By David Rowe

MILLINGTON, Tenn. - Results of round 2 eliminations in Funny Car at the 13th annual AutoZone Nationals presented by Pennzoil:

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
  12 Bruce Sarver        4.985 294.43  Q    4 Ron Capps           4.893 302.89
   (J Toliver   ) 0.505  4.941 280.19  E1   (T Johnson Jr) 0.512  5.006 285.35
                  0.497 12.832  67.59  E2 *****WINNER***** 0.489  4.974 283.01

2:28 PM Sarver goes up in smoke at the hit and has to give up on the run. Capps makes a good run but starts putting oil down on the track about fifty feet before the lights. He earns twenty points for the win but gives up half of them for the oil-down.

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   7 Scotty Cannon       4.920 308.85  Q    2 Tim Wilkerson       4.871 308.64
   (D Worsham   ) 0.548  4.911 295.08  E1   (G Densham   ) 0.525  5.011 289.14
 *****WINNER***** 0.574  5.467 242.45  E2                  0.546 12.423  82.49

Wilkerson comes off the line and goes up in smoke. Cannon starts shaking the tires right off the line. He had a couple of dead cylinders on the left side and the car veers toward the wall. He does a great job of steering it back to the middle of the lane and takes the win.

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   3 Whit Bazemore       4.876 302.21  Q   11 Jim Epler           4.971 295.53
   (D Skuza     ) 0.528  4.912 298.54  E1   (T Pedregon  ) 0.472  5.013 289.01
 *****WINNER***** 0.514  4.931 300.93  E2                  0.506  5.030 265.33

Epler starts out on a good pass but started mixing up cylinders around half-track. Bazemore makes a good pass and runs only the second 300-mph pass during eliminations so far. He will have lane choice over Cannon in round three.

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   8 Frank Pedregon      4.936 267.27  Q    1 John Force          4.870 304.94
   (S Weis      ) 0.529  4.977 301.40  E1   (A Hofmann   ) 0.516  5.053 260.11
                  0.528  9.442  81.09  E2 *****WINNER***** 0.498  4.944 298.67

Force could put some distance between himself and Toliver with a win here. Pedregon comes off the line,shakes the tires and heads toward the centerline. Force makes a clean pass and will have lane choice over Capps in round three.