Cruz Pedregon Qualifies 11th For NHRA Finale

Advance Auto Parts Nitro Funny Car

Pedregon Racing
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
40th Anniversary Auto Club of Southern California NHRA Finals
Pomona Raceway
Final Qualifying Notes & Quotes

Cruz Pedregon Picks Up the Pace Today
Advance Auto Parts Funny Car Ready For First Round Battle

POMONA, Calif. (Nov. 13, 2004) ­ Cruz Pedregon drove his Advance Auto Parts
Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car into the 11th position for tomorrowıs Automobile
Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Pomona Raceway.

Pedregon made his best run of the weekend in the fourth and final qualifying
session, laying down a 4.772-second elapsed time at 320.97 mph. It sets up a
round one showdown with Phil Burkhart, who is battling Pedregon for the
seventh pointıs position.

³It wasnıt a perfect run, but we put up some good numbers,² Pedregon said.
³Iım also pleased with running 320 mph. On previous runs, (crew chief) Wes
(Cerny) was scratching his head because the clutch wasnıt wearing the way it
should. There was a little apprehension about what the car was going to do
in that final session.

³He made the best calculated guess as to what we thought he car wanted ­ and
it worked,² Pedregon added. ³We werenıt in a position to go for the
number-one slot considering our two previous runs. We left something on the
table out there, but it still spun the tires a little bit and got out of the
groove. It definitely was a good run going into race day.²

Advance Auto Parts Notebook:

CHANGING CONDITIONS: Cruz Pedregon and the Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo
Nitro Funny Car made his final qualifying pass as the sun disappeared into
the horizon. According to the 1992 Funny Car champ, it was a perfect time to
make a run at historic Pomona Raceway.

³Anytime you have dusk, heading into nighttime conditions, the track is
going to get quicker,² Pedregon noted. ³Particularly this track because itıs
a little better than most. We had the best conditions you could possibly
want out there and thatıs why you saw a lot of 4.70s.

³Itıs supposed to warm up a little bit tomorrow,² Pedregon added. ³Weıre in
the field solidly and we made two 4.70 runs this weekend ­ down both sides
of the track. Weıre going to continue to work and keep trying to be
consistent. Wes got a lot of valuable data on that run and weıll be ready
for tomorrow.²

PedregonRacing.com