Championship Drag Racing

Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals
Brainerd, MN
(August 9-12)

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Cruz Pedregon Snap-on Toyota Solara

Brainerd, Sunday: Cruz Pedregon and his Advance Auto Parts Funny Car team reached the No. 13 spot in Saturday’s third qualifying round only to find themselves bumped to 18th quickest car in the field this past weekend at the NHRA Nationals in Brainerd- just a scant .124 from 16th. A rare mechanical issue may have kept them from Sunday’s final 16.

The Advance Auto Parts team, with interim crew chief, Kevin Butterfield led by Tony Pedregon’s crew chief, Dickie Venables of the Q Horsepower team, worked overtime to prepare the car for Brainerd. 

“When you make the kind of changes we made, there is a learning curve to get things in order,” said Pedregon of the efforts to prepare identical cars. ”It took us a couple of extra runs to get where we needed to be and we were the 18th quickest car in the field. Unfortunately, only 16 cars race on Sunday. I really feel we were one run away from making the field."

“The team worked many hours Wednesday and Thursday changing everything over and I’m really proud of them for their hard work, “said Pedregon. “Our goal is to make our car 100 percent the same as Tony’s-- same fuel system, same electrical system, same everything. We’ve made exceptions in the past for various reasons, but we’re not deviating this time around. I’m even warming the car the same as Tony and I’ve shed weight, 14 pounds to be exact. We are leaving no stone uncovered.”

Pedregon and his team head to Reading, Pa., for the next stop on the $50 million, NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series circuit.

“With Brainerd now behind us, we are heading for Reading having made all the changes to the car,” Pedregon said. “We are already thinking about Reading and coming back with a strong showing.”

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