Tony Pedregon Wraps Up Sixth-Qualifying Position
Quaker State Racing Funny Car Pedregon Racing NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway Final Qualifying Notes & Quotes Tony Pedregon Wraps Up Sixth-Qualifying Position Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Awaits Burkhart, Jr. BRAINERD, Minn. (Aug. 14, 2004) Tony Pedregon and the Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car took home a second-straight impressive qualifying performance by wrapping up the sixth position for tomorrowıs NHRA National Event at Brainerd International Raceway. Pedregon, who clocked a 4.899-second elapsed time at 315.42 mph during yesterdayıs second session, followed that up today with a 4.94-second pass during the fourth and final session putting together a solid run in race day conditions. This performance comes on the heels of Pedregonıs second-qualifying effort during the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway two weekends ago. ³We were a little conservative on that last run,² Pedregon commented. ³We had our best run of the weekend out to about the 300 or 400-foot mark though. But we didnıt want to have an aborted run, so we backed off a little at the top end. ³I like our chances for tomorrow,² said Pedregon, who will match up with Phil Burkhart, Jr., in the first round of eliminations tomorrow. ³At this stage of this teamıs evolution, whether itıs warm or its cool and I used to think our chances weıre better when it was cool we can make the right adjustments. Regardless of the competition, Iım real encouraged about racing tomorrow. With yesterdayıs cooler temperatures prevailing, the heat of this afternoonıs final-qualifying session created a challenge for the teams. Pedregon commented on how the Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Funny Car held up. ³Weıve had some changing conditions here this weekend, but our engine components have really held together,² Pedregon noted. ³Itıs one of the benefits of having Quaker State products in our car under extreme conditions, we know it wonıt fail.² Quaker State Racing Notebook: CONSISTENCY: Tony Pedregon is pleased with the direction his Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car is headed. He talked about how the team has come together on both the performance and consistency sides of the equation. ³It has come with time,² Pedregon said. ³Of course, you always want to make more progress sooner, but the only way to do that is to continued to work. This team has a great work ethic and weıre not going to be content until we have a complete, solid package in place. Now, we have the performance and consistency. Our only challenge is the quality of the competition, which is extremely high out here.² PedregonRacing.com