Cruz Pedregon Elimination Wrap Up From 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 Comes Up A Little Short CHANDLER, Ariz. (Feb. 27, 2005) Cruz Pedregon, driver of the Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car, was narrowly edged at the top end during his first round match in this weekendıs NHRA National Event at Firebird International Raceway. Pedregon lapped the quarter mile in 4.861-seconds at 310.98 mph, just falling short of Phil Burkartıs 4.854-second pass at 316.15 mph. Pedregon talked about his day. ³(Crew chief) Wes (Cerny) made the right calls on the set up,² Pedregon said. ³It was a little softer (the clutch) than we wanted after we looked at the numbers. But we only made one of our four qualifying runs even though that one, was a good one. ³Our goal now is to get our percentages a little more consistent down the track,² Pedregon continued. ³We didnıt want to smoke the tires and we felt we ran as good as we cold have without going over center. It just came up a little short. The guy in the other lane had a great reaction time and we got beat at both ends. It hurts for a little bit, but when youıve been doing this for as long as I have, you have to look at what we did right and know that we have one of the top-flight cars out here. We qualified in the top half of the field for a second-straight race.² Pedregon also commented what the team wants to accomplish heading to the next event in Gainesville, Fla. ³Weıre going to try to be more consistent in our qualifying, so that we have that confidence going into race day,² Pedregon said. ³In drag racing, each session is its own qualifying challenge. We would like to have the top three or four elapsed times in every round. Every time you go up to the starting line, itıs a different time a day with a different track temperature. We werenıt among the top cars this weekend. Iım confident weıll get this thing back to where it needs to be.² -PedregonRacing.com- Pedregon lines up against number 10 qualifier Arend for round one tomorrow.