Championship Drag Racing

SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals
Las Vegas, Nev.
(April 10-13)

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Driver Profile

Cruz Pedregon Snap-on Toyota Solara

Las Vegas, Sunday: Cruz Pedregon and his Advance Auto Parts NHRA Funny Car team qualified in the top half of the ladder and raced into the opening round of the NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Heading into Las Vegas as the POWERade Championship point leader, Pedregon faced the No. 12 qualifier, Gary Densham in the opening round of Sunday's final eliminations.  He was quick off the line with a .050 reaction time to Densham's .096.  Pedregon, facing track temperatures of 119 degrees, was ahead at every marker when, at about half track, a dropped cylinder caused him to move out of the groove and brush the wall.  

"We had the lead," said Pedregon. "And our car was on pace for a quick run, but at 300 mph it doesn't take much to move these cars over near the wall. 

"Hot track conditions are part of drag racing. One of our strong points is our ability to get down the warmer tracks- that's why we're looking forward to racing in the heat of Atlanta in a couple of weeks.  It was another solid weekend- we made some good runs in the heat and qualified 5^th.  We're in the top three in points and our strong races are ahead of us."

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