Cruz Pedregon Qualifies Sixth at Firebird
NHRA 2005 NOTES & QUOTES NHRA National Event Firebird International Raceway Chandler, Ariz. Advance Auto Parts Nitro Funny Car - Pedregon Racing NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Cruz Pedregon Qualifies Sixth at Firebird The Advance Auto Parts Machine Has More Left CHANDLER, Ariz. (Feb. 26, 2005) The Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car and driver Cruz Pedregon have been a model of consistency to start out the 2005 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season. He did it again during this weekendıs NHRA National Event at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Ariz., locking up the sixth-qualifying spot with a 4.780-second elapsed time at 320.66 mph. It is Pedregonıs second-straight top half of the field qualifying effort and sets up a first round match with Phil Burkart. ³Weıre definitely feeling good about our race set up for tomorrow,² Pedregon said. ³We have a lot left in the car from the 4.78 run we made last night. That run was to make sure we made it down the track, but we know this car has a low to mid 4.70 left in it. ³Weıre going to have to race the conditions, though,² Pedregon continued. ³We had dark, cool night sessions last night and sunny conditions today. Even though it was relatively cool, the track still had the sun beating down on it the entire day. Our margin for error is a lot narrower when you have a sunlit track. (Crew chief) Wes (Cerny) will strategize tomorrow and make the right call. And Iıll be on my game and hopefully, weıll go some rounds.² Advance Auto Parts Notebook: DAY SCHOOL: With such a solid Friday night qualifying pass already under his belt, Cruz Pedregon and the Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car team were able to work through todayıs two sessions. ³It was a learning curve day,² Pedregon said. ³We went out there on our first run, the car left hard and dropped a cylinder a little over two seconds into the run, killing a substantial amount of horsepower. We learned we needed to better match the clutch with the fuel system. ³In the second run, we had the car pointed a little bit out of the groove, smoked the tires and that ended the run,² Pedregon added. ³We know what we did wrong and we should be in good shape for eliminations. Weıve had some of the Funny Car fieldıs better 60-foot times this weekend.²