Championship Drag Racing

ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals
Las Vegas, NV
(October 25-28)

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Driver Profile

Tony Pedregon Pedregon Racing Toyota Camry

Las Vegas, prerace: Tony Pedregon, the 2003 Funny Car champion, and his Q Horsepower team are the No. 1 seeded Funny Car team heading into the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It’s the 22nd of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series and the first of two races in the Countdown to 1, a two-race “championship” in which the field of four remaining Funny Car drivers is reduced to one, the POWERade champion.

Pedregon, a three-time NHRA national event winner this year, benefited from the October 17-18 test session at The Strip. His 4.733 blast during Wednesday’s test was close to the track e.t. record, a 4.728, set in 2006 by the late Eric Medlen.

“We feel we’re as ready as we can be,” said Pedregon. “It gives us confidence that we tested on the same track that we’ll race on next week. We ran a 4.733 and a 4.760 at the Las Vegas test session and we made several other runs with a planned, early shut-off. We gathered enough data to help us with our qualifying and race day tune-ups. We are hoping for good conditions because we know that the track will be good, despite the weather conditions.”

Heading into the Countdown to 1, the competition for the championship is fierce. Only 30 points, less than two round wins, separates Pedregon from Ron Capps, the No. 4 seed in the Countdown.

“We felt if we could make it to the top four, we would have as good a chance as any of the other three cars in the championship,” said an optimistic Pedregon. “Dickie [Venables, crew chief] is confident in the way the car is responding which gives me confidence. We have great sponsors and great equipment and we will benefit from the extra horsepower and protection provided by our Q Horsepower.”

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