Championship Drag Racing

Checker Schuck's Kragen NHRA Nationals
Chandler, AZ
(February 24-26)

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Tony Pedregon Pedregon Racing Toyota Camry

Phoenix, Sunday: Tony Pedregon and his Q Power Race Team had a strong run in Phoenix, reaching the quarterfinals at the Checker Schuck’s Kragen NHRA Nationals at Firebird Int’l Raceway in Chandler, Ariz. in the second race of the 2006 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season.

After qualifying fourth in the Nitro Funny Car division (4.724 sec/317.19 mph), Pedregon won the first round of eliminations on Sunday by taking out Gary Densham with a 4.778 at 324.51 mph.

Pedregon was eliminated in the second round with a 4.847 sec./324.05 mph effort, losing to eventual winner Tommy Johnson Jr. (4.809/324.05) in a fierce battle that saw Pedregon cross the stripe a mere .04 seconds behind Johnson.

“We lost a close race, but I think what is encouraging is that one of our focuses for this year was to make our car and team more consistent, and we definitely made progress toward that goal in Phoenix,” said Pedregon. “We had drastically different weather conditions between rounds one and two. We ran really well in the first round, but the temperature warmed up and we knew we’d have to pull back quite a bit. Looking back, we probably pulled back a little too much. But the car responded to everything we did. We’ll win more of those races than we’ll lose. We’ll encounter those same conditions in the next few races, and be more prepared then. We are happy because we moved from 10th to 8th in points, and gained more ground.”

A strong off-season testing program and renewed team focus for 2006 has Pedregon and his Q Power Race Team excited for the upcoming races in Gainesville and Houston. “We put in some good work here and in the off-season, and we feel like we’ve got the best of everything to work with, good companies surrounding our program and the best equipment on the race track. So we are really excited for the upcoming races and the rest of the 2006 season.”

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