Tony Pedregon Drives to Second Round in Topeka

NHRA 2005 NOTES & QUOTES

17th annual O¹Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals
Heartland Park Topeka­ Topeka, Kan.
ŒQ¹ Racing Nitro Funny Car - Pedregon Racing
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series

Tony Pedregon Drives to Second Round
Q Racing Driver Moves Up To 9th in NHRA POWERade Points

TOPEKA, Kan. (May 29, 2005) ­Q Racing Nitro Funny Car driver Tony Pedregon
moved his way to the second round of eliminations during today¹s 17th annual
O¹Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka.

Hot and humid conditions made for a lot of smoke in Topeka. Pedregon had the
second best reaction time of the round (.068 seconds), but spun the tires
early and ran a 8.742 second elapsed time at 98.06 mph. Robert Hight clicked
off a 4.871-second elapsed time at 311.85 mph.

³We spun the tires early in the second run of eliminations,² said Pedregon.
³The car was giving us a short window of opportunity and we overpowered the
track. We¹re going to test in Chicago next and I am confident that Dickie
Venables (Crew Chief) and the rest of the ŒQ¹ Racing team will fix the
problem. We¹ll be ready to race the Route 66 Raceway.²

In the first round, Pedregon overpowered Del Worsham with a 4.837-second
elapsed time at 323.35 mph to Worsham¹s 4.860-second elapsed time at 319.98
mph.

 After this weekend, Tony Pedregon moved up to the No. 9 spot in NHRA
POWERade Funny Car points with 405.

e