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Denver NHRA Second Round Chevy Notes

CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES MOPAR PARTS MILE-HIGH NATIONALS NHRA WINSTON DRAG RACING SERIES BANDIMERE SPEEDWAY SUNDAY, JULY 19, 1998 FUNNY CAR -- CAMARO Z28 FIRST ROUND ALL THREE FUNNY CAR CAMAROS ADVANCED TO THE SECOND ROUND. No. 1 ...

CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES MOPAR PARTS MILE-HIGH NATIONALS NHRA WINSTON DRAG RACING SERIES BANDIMERE SPEEDWAY SUNDAY, JULY 19, 1998

FUNNY CAR -- CAMARO Z28

FIRST ROUND

ALL THREE FUNNY CAR CAMAROS ADVANCED TO THE SECOND ROUND. No. 1 qualifier WHIT BAZEMORE, TEAM WINSTON CAMARO Z28, defeated Keith Jackson in first round of eliminations, 5.501/269.70 to 5.589/250.90. CHUCK ETCHELLS, KENDALL/MA MA ROSA'S PIZZA/SUPERWINCH CAMARO Z28, defeated Don Sosenka, 5.312/286.89 to 27.102/34.18. RON CAPPS, COPENHAGEN CAMARO Z28, eliminated Cruz Pedregon, 5.315/285.35 to 5.502/258.10.

SECOND ROUND

WHIT BAZEMORE and RON CAPPS advanced to the semifinals. Bazemore defeated Al Hofmann in the second round, 5.400/257.58 to 7.871/107.64; Capps eliminated points leader John Force, 5.355/284.81 to 5.694/251.74. CHUCK ETCHELLS was defeated by Tony Pedregon, 5.793/253.30 to 9.441/96.99. Etchells smoked the tires early, tried to pedal it, got sideways, then scraped the wall with the front and rear fenders in the left lane.

Capps and Bazemore will face each other in the semifinals.

ETCHELLS: "It was a decent leave. A lot of times before they smoke the tires they would shake a bit. There was no advance notice it was coming. It was just instant huge tire smoke. When that happens that early in the run it's very difficult to recover. It was just spinning the tires and blew them off. Then I got on and off the throttle, then it just blew them off again. At that point I got off the throttle. Obviously, I just went a hair too far with it. It got sideways, and I tried to straighten it out and I saw he was going nowhere and I thought maybe I could still catch him. I tried to straighten it up and then it was pointed straight to the wall and I had to shut it off. But I had a burning desire to win and I could see how slow he (Tony) was going, I had hopes of pulling it out. In this case it was foolish hope. Yes, we now have a Darlington stripe on the Camaro."

ON THE POINTS CHASE: "The sad thing about it is we could have made a move on John (Force) here and try to keep some distance between Ron (Capps), Tony (Pedregon) and us. So, it will be just a little more exciting points chase, that's all."

ON THE DAMAGE TO THE CAMARO BODY: "There are still two Chevys running out of four cars, and we're still one point behind John. The other sad thing is we have done a lot of aerodynamics work to the Camaro body between the last race and here. We extended the sides like the Copenhagen Camaro, the things they learned in the wind tunnel. This body is a better body (than the spare) but it's not in good shape now. We did a little work underneath it as well. What we're going to do right now is fix the body as best as we can. It will be a little bit ugly for the next few races, but we're going to fix it up as best as we can. The tree that holds the body behind the driver is definitely bent and needs a little work. We don't want to change cars. And some of the spaghetti work, the struts, underneath the body is bent as well."

PRO STOCK

KURT JOHNSON, AC DELCO CAMARO Z28, No. 2 qualifier, advanced to the semifinals, after defeating Jim Yates and Mike Edwards. He will face Jeg Coughlin in the semi.

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