Cruz Pedregon Faces Tough Foe in Round One Advance Auto Parts Racing Nitro Funny Car

Pedregon Racing
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway
Final Qualifying Notes & Quotes

Cruz Pedregon Awaits Tough First Round Test
Advance Auto Parts Machine Qualifies 15th
 
BRAINERD, Minn. (Aug. 14, 2004) ­ Cruz Pedregon, driver of the Advance Auto
Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car, has a big first round match up with Gary
Densham to open tomorrowıs NHRA National Event at Brainerd International
Raceway.

Pedregon, who qualified 15th with a 5.128-second elapsed time at 263.20 mph
during todayıs third session, will try to keep his streak of five-straight,
first-round victories alive.

³Weıre going to let it all hang out tomorrow,² Pedregon said. ³The car wants
to run well and I think weıll get out there and give Gary Densham a good
race. Weıre going up against a formidable car, but if we can get by the
first round, weıll be back in the battle again.

³I think weıre just a couple of tweaks away from making a great run,²
Pedregon added. ³The car ran really well during the first part of our runs.
I think it would have run a high 4.80-second elapsed time in that fourth
session. It just spun the tires though.²

The Advance Auto Parts team recovered from a slow start, improving on
yesterdayıs elapsed-time performances. The former NHRA POWERade Funny Car
World Champion is ready for tomorrow.

³We have made enough runs and we have enough data to be fine,² Pedregon
said. ³(Crew chief) Wes Cerny will make the right adjustments. We know weıre
going to have to run well to win out of the 15th position. But weıre going
to come out swinging in that first round and weıre capable of doing that.
Sometimes, and I think this might if happened to us this weekend, when you
try to be a little too conservative, other things start to creep up.

³I think because we had so many problems earlier in the weekend and we
really havenıt had the data to adjust to the track,² Pedregon continued.
³Weıre a step behind and we really havenıt totally recovered from our slow
weekend start, but Iım real optimistic and I feel good about our chances for
tomorrow.² 

Advance Auto Parts Racing Notebook:

RACE DAY: Cruz Pedregon and the Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny
Car will not change the strategy that has seen the team win 10 rounds of
competition in the last five races, dating back to the event at Old Bridge
Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J.

³I like to qualify in the top half,² Pedregon said. ³Really, Sunday is the
big picture for any race weekend. There have been plenty of cars win race
from the bottom half of the field. Weıre going to approach things the same
way. When weıre paired up tomorrow, weıre all even and you have to throw
qualifying out the window.

PedregonRacing.com