Cruz Pedregon Qualifies 11th After Day One in Memphis

Advance Auto Parts Racing Nitro Funny Car

Pedregon Racing
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park
Friday Qualifying Notes & Quotes

Cruz Pedregon Starts the Weekend in 11th
Advance Auto Parts Funny Car
 
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Aug. 20, 2004) ­ Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny
Car driver Cruz Pedregon utilized an excellent first round pass to corner
the 11th slot to open this weekendıs NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event
at Memphis Motorsports Park.

Pedregon maneuvered his machine to a 5.020-second elapsed time at 279.56
mph, making the fourth-quickest pass of the first session. In the second
session, Pedregon tried to capture the top spot for the night.

³We wanted to be aggressive on that last run,² said Pedregon, who smoked the
tires at about halftrack in session number two. ³We had a 5.02 on our first
run, which put us solidly in the field and we felt good about the car
because we were fourth. (Crew chief) Wes (Cerny) got after it. I felt that
we were on a great run too, but it wasnıt meant to be.

³Itıs pretty dark out there,² Pedregon continued. ³The car rattled the tires
a little bit, which moved me to the right a couple of feet. That left the
car a little further away from the center of the track than I wanted. It was
enough to get us off center and it eventually smoked the tires.

Pedregon is optimistic about tomorrow.

³If we get cloud cover tomorrow, we feel we can make a couple of great
runs,² Pedregon said. ³Weıll have to see what the weather looks like. We
feel like we can go out in the heat of the day tomorrow and put up some good
numbers.²

Advance Auto Parts Racing Notebook:

OFF AGAIN, ON AGAIN: Following Cruz Pedregonıs stellar 5.020-second elapsed
time in the first session, NHRA temporarily disqualified the Advance Auto
Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car. Pedregon talked about how it turned out.

³We all know that we have to weight the car after the runs,² Pedregon said.
³Unfortunately, the scale is off the beaten path at this track and we just
flat passed it up. I went to NHRA afterwards and I felt that ­ and itıs been
a year since I was here last ­ the layout caught us off guard a little bit.
We werenıt trying to pull a fast one or anything. NHRA looked at it the same
way, agreeing that it was off the beaten path a little bit. We definitely
will know where the scales are the next time.²