Quaker State Racing/Tony Pedregon Seattle Wrap Up

Quaker State Racing Funny Car

Pedregon Racing
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Pacific Raceways
Elimination Notes & Quotes

Tony Pedregon Falls in the First Round
Quaker State Racing Improves His Performance

KENT, Wash. (July 25, 2004) ­ Tony Pedregon, driver of the Quaker State
Racing Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car, fell in the first round of eliminations
to Eric Medlin during today¹s NHRA national event at Pacific Raceways.

Pedregon, the reigning NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car World
Champion, ran a 4.891-second elapsed time at 316.97 mph, but it wasn¹t
enough to catch Medlin¹s 4.948-second elapsed time at 314.75 mph. The
California resident talked about his day.

³The car definitely performed the way we wanted it too,² Pedregon said.
³(Crew chief) Dickie Venables did the right things, and made the car almost
perfect. I¹m a little disappointed in the way I staged the car. It was just
a little driver error. We live in a world of tenths, and thousandths of a
second, and that¹s what often determines the outcome of a close race. At
this point, my responsibility is to locate and understand what I did wrong.

³My mental preparation will definitely be better for Sonoma (Calif.),²
Pedregon added. ³We didn¹t lose a lot of ground overall, so there is no
reason to panic. We adapted almost better than any other team, with the
drastic change in conditions. We know this car has just as much potential,
even with the rule changes that have been made, so I¹m quite happy about
that. We need to get the consistency, and we¹re really working on that area.
I¹m discouraged a little bit short term, but the long-term prospects for
this team are quite bright. We go to the next race, like a champion, and see
if we can come out on top.²

PedregonRacing.com