Tony Pedregon Opens Seattle In Seventh

18th Annual CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals
Pacific Raceways ­ Kent, Wash.
ŒQ¹ Racing Nitro Funny Car - Pedregon Racing
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series

Tony Pedregon In Seventh Spot After Two Rounds
ŒQ¹ Racing Solid in First Day of Seattle Qualifying

KENT, Wash. (July 22, 2005) ­ Tony Pedregon, driver of the ŒQ¹ Racing Nitro
Funny Car, captured the seventh position after two rounds of qualifying for
the 18th annual CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Pacific Raceways.

Pedregon started the Seattle weekend clicking off a 4.806-second elapsed
time at 318.62 mph during the second pass off the day. Morning rain showers
delayed qualifying into the night with cars taking advantage of cooler track
conditions.

Dickie Venables, Pedregon¹s crew chief, talks about the strategy for this
weekend.

³We encountered a track in very good conditions,² explained Venables. ³But
we did not have the best first run (4.971 seconds), so we decided to run
cautiously during the second one and not take full advantage of tonight¹s
cool conditions.

³The ŒQ¹ car is running very well and we plan on staying in the top half of
the field tomorrow. Our main goal is to have two more solid runs and gather
data for Sunday¹s eliminations.²

-PedregonRacing.com-