Championship Drag Racing

O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals
Bristol, TN
(April 28-30)

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Driver Profile

Cruz Pedregon Snap-on Toyota Solara

Bristol, prerace: Cruz Pedregon, the 1992 NHRA Funny Car world champion, is headed to Bristol, Tenn., this weekend for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals from Bristol Dragway for the sixth of 23 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series events in 2006. Pedregon is coming off of a win at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two weekends ago, and is now fifth in points in the NHRA Funny Car standings.

“I love the Bristol Dragway facility,” said Pedregon about the upcoming race. “Bruton Smith always does an outstanding job with his tracks. We definitely know the fans like Thunder Valley. It’s a great venue, and I look forward to racing there every year. It’s close to Advance Auto Parts’ home office in Roanoke, Va., so that’s another reason to look forward to this race.”

As far as his chances in Bristol after a big win in Las Vegas, Pedregon is taking one week at a time: “We won last week, and that was great – we are still excited about that and are more motivated than ever,” said Pedregon. “But now we are focused on Bristol, and that win is not going to help us this week other than to give us momentum. We are humble going into Bristol. The best team each week will still win. We are still doing the same things that got us the win last week – four solid runs. We’ll pick up from the victory we had at Vegas and approach the Bristol weekend the same way.

“I met with the team this week and we are all motivated to go to Bristol with great information gained from the beginning of the season, and especially the win in Las Vegas. We are looking forward to moving up more in points after Bristol.”

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