TONY PEDREGON AND THE Q POWER RACE TEAM REACH QUARTERFINALS IN LAS VEGAS

2006 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series

Round 22 of 23

NHRA Nationals, The Strip at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway

Race Date: October 27-29, 2006

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (October 30, 2006) - Tony Pedregon and his Q Power Race Team ran well but exited the NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway after a tough second round loss in the Nitro Funny Car division. Pedregon once again qualified in the top half of the field in Las Vegas, in 8th, and that effort allowed him to retain 5th in the 2006 point standings.

"We dropped a cylinder in both the first and second rounds, which essentially means we were running on seven cylinders - one cylinder was not firing, which led to the blower belt breaking on both runs. Something was obviously not right with the tuneup," Pedregon explained of his shortened day in Las Vegas. "We need to figure this out before the NHRA Finals in Pomona in a couple of weeks, so we're going to test on Monday and hopefully figure out what we need to do with the car to correct these problems. We know we are better than what we showed in Las Vegas, and we'll work through the problems and hopefully take our Q Power team to Pomona and contend for a win there."

NEXT RACE: November 10-12 - NHRA Finals, Auto Club Raceway at Pomona (Calif.)

LAS VEGAS 2 RACE RESULTS:

QUALIFIED:

8th - 4.742 / 320.97 

 

FIRST ROUND:

(W) Tony Pedregon - 5.143 / 225.90

(L) Gary Scelzi - 5.179 / 319.82

 

SECOND ROUND:

(W) Tony Bartone - 4.881 / 312.28

(L) Tony Pedregon - 5.177 / 211.53

 

FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS:

1. John Force, 1520

2. Ron Capps, 1449

3. Robert Hight, 1447

4. Eric Medlen, 1373

5. Tony Pedregon, 1328

6. Tommy Johnson Jr., 1269

7. Gary Scelzi, 1172

8. Phil Burkart, 962

9. Whit Bazemore, 956

10. Cruz Pedregon, 946