Cruz Pedregon Opens Dallas Strong
Advance Auto Parts Racing Nitro Funny Car Pedregon Racing NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Texas Motorplex Ennis, Texas Friday Qualifying Notes & Quotes Cruz Pedregon Starts Out Texas Weekend Strong Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Takes Provisional Seventh ENNIS, Texas (Sept. 24, 2004) Cruz Pedregon opened this weekendıs Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex with a couple of strong qualifying efforts, placing the Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car into the provisional seventh slot. Pedregon, who reached the final of the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park three weekends ago, reeled off two solid qualifying runs today, with the second resulting in a 4.875-second elapsed time at 312.71 mph. The second pass was set during the night session. ³Anytime you start out the weekend with a strong run, it really helps the team,² Pedregon said. ³We came back in the second session and drove to the seventh slot. I talked to (crew chief) Wes (Cerny) after the run and he said that he felt the car should have even performed better. We may have some ignition issues, but overall Iım pretty happy and I know we have some more left in it. ³We definitely have something to work with this weekend,² Pedregon continued. ³That run puts us where we need to be in the field right now. Tomorrow weıre going to work on our daytime set up and see where we stack up.² Advance Auto Parts Notebook: RACE CONDITONS: The Texas Motorplex traditionally offers a narrow racing groove. Cruz Pedregon, driver of the Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car, relayed his thoughts from todayıs qualifying conditions. ³This track is probably one of the most challenging to drive,² Pedregon said. ³Thereıs a lot of traction in the groove, but when you get out of the groove you smoke the tires. Itıs concrete the entire quarter mile and it seems a little harder to keep in there. Youıre so hooked up out there that the front end wants to stay light. ³We really havenıt had a lot of problems so far this weekend though,² Pedregon added. ³The car does want to move around a little at the top end, but it really never affected either run. We made two good runs and if we can do the same tomorrow, weıll have enough solid data for tomorrow.²