Cruz Pedregon / Advance Auto Parts Race Team - Topeka Results

May 29, 2006

CRUZ PEDREGON AND THE ADVANCE AUTO PARTS RACE TEAM 

HEAT UP IN TOPEKA

 

2006 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series 
Round 9 of 23 
NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka (Kan.)
Race Date:  May 26-28, 2006

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (May 29, 2006) -  Cruz Pedregon and his Advance Auto Parts Race
Team qualified 13th in NHRA POWERade Nitro Funny Car action from the NHRA
Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka (Kan.) this past weekend, but
suffered a tough first round loss after track conditions cooled off
significantly from the previous days for the Sunday morning round.  

 

"Sunday's first round was just a matter of track conditions changing from
what they had been," Pedregon explained.  "The track was faster than some of
us had anticipated. The Advance Auto Parts car was set up for hot
conditions, and during that first round, I had to get on and off of the
throttle once before the car started to lose traction."  

 

Pedregon's first-round run was much closer than the final results show due
to his near-perfect reaction time - a .010 compared to Capps' .077:  I had a
good lead against Capps, then he pulled along side of me, but as we went
down the track, we started to drop cylinders. 

 

Fans watching the ESPN2 television coverage of Friday night qualifying got
an inside look at what it's like to be strapped into an enclosed Funny Car
cockpit when something goes wrong:  "Friday night, we ended up burning a
piston and blowing off an oil line, and that's where the fire came from.  It
made great TV coverage because of our Advance Auto Parts in-car camera
footage - it gave the fans a real perspective of what it's like to be in a
Funny Car when something like that happens.  Thanks to the fire bottles, the
flames went out right away, which is a definite improvement over the safety
conditions years ago. Because of these incidents, we worked toward sealing
the cockpit better.  In the event it happens again, fire shouldn't get into
the cockpit like that."  

 

The Advance Auto Parts team is constantly working towards better and more
consistent results each week, and have elected to test in Topeka on Monday:
"We are staying in Topeka to test a new chassis design which is identical to
Tony's car, and he's had a lot of success with it in recent races, so we are
encouraged by that.  It's another step the Advance Auto Parts team is taking
to be more consistent each week."

 

In 2005, Cruz Pedregon and the Advance Auto Parts Race Team finished for the
second consecutive year in the top 10 in points, was #1 qualifier twice and
recorded a career best ET speed of 4.680 seconds at 330.80mph. 

 

 

NEXT RACE:   NHRA Nationals from Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., June
9-11, 2006

 

TOPEKA RACE RESULTS:   

 

QUALIFIED:
13th - 4.953 / 270.75 

 

FIRST ROUND RESULTS:
(W) Ron Capps - 4.993 / 296.57

(L) Cruz Pedregon - 5.104 / 291.32

 

FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS:
1. Ron Capps, 781
2. John Force, 672
3. Robert Hight, 552
4. Eric Medlen, 528
5. Tony Pedregon, 508
6. Tommy Johnson Jr., 478
7. Whit Bazemore, 466
8. Del Worsham, 438
9. Cruz Pedregon, 433
10. Gary Scelzi, 400