For Cruz Pedregon, the 1992 NHRA Nitro Funny Car World Champion and his Advance Auto Parts team, in consistent fashion, marched into the semifinal round at the NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, this past weekend. Pedregon continued to use the cool, Friday evening qualifying session to place his Advanced Auto Parts Funny Car in the ultra-competitive funny car field- a 4.862, placing him in the 13th qualified position.
Pedregon’s consistent performance continued during Sunday’s Final Eliminations. He would post one of the quickest times in the first round of eliminations and then move into a semifinal round appearance against eventual round winner, Mike Ashley. By the end of the day, Pedregon will have moved up two positions to 10th in the Countdown to the Championship points chase.
In elimination round one, Pedregon knocked out the lights with a. 084 reaction time and zipped past the finish line with an elapsed time of 4.848, 312.06 mph to Tommy Johnson, Jr. ’s losing 4.972, 306.81 mph. The quarterfinal round saw Pedregon, with lane choice, paired up against Jack Beckman. Pedregon launched his 8,000 horsepower Nitro Funny Car ahead of Beckman and crossed the stripe first with a solid, 4.890 ET.
“We had a strong day on Sunday, ” stated Pedregon. “We tied Mike Ashley for the quick time (4.84) of the first round and knocked off Tommy Johnson, Jr., the event winner in Englishtown last weekend. Anytime you make it to the semifinal round, it’s a good weekend. ”
Pedregon gave up valuable lane choice to Ashley in the semifinals.
“In the Semifinals, we were just trying to pick up the pace, ” explained Pedregon. “We felt we lost ground to the times Mike Ashley was running. We got the tires loose and that ended our day. It was definitely a ‘get healthy’ weekend for the team. We’d all like to win, however, if we keep going to the semifinals and performing like we did this weekend, we’ll find the winners circle with the Advance Auto Parts Funny Car real soon. ”
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