Mac Tools U.S. Nationals
Indianapolis, Ind.
(Sept. 1-6)
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Cruz Pedregon Advance Auto Parts Funny Car |
Reports: Monday Sunday Saturday Friday Pre-race |
Indianapolis, Monday: Cruz Pedregon almost wielded his Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car to the fourth U.S. Nationals victory of his career at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Pedregon, who won this event in 1992, 1994 and 1995, was beaten out by Gary Densham in today's final. During that run, Pedregon was on and off the throttle near the start, and was unable to defeat Densham's 4.890-second elapsed time at 317.64 mph. The effort marked Pedregon's third final of the season.
"It's a little frustrating, but satisfying at the same time," said Pedregon, the 1992 POWERade Funny Car World Champion. "We still went to the final round of the biggest race. After the disappointment wears off, you can look back and see what a great day we had.
"The final was weird," Pedregon continued. "I'm sure (Crew chief) Wes (Cerny) felt that a win was well within our grip, but we knew we could have run with Densham. We put a little extra heat in the clutch in the final. Unfortunately, the body was inadvertently lowered onto the throttle arm and it accelerated a bit before the run. The clutches in these cars are very temperature sensitive and it threw us off a little bit. It threw me a bit off as well and I didn't get as good if a start as I had wanted. I don't know if it would have mattered because the car went into some heavy duty shake - I got in and out of the throttle - but Gary was already gone at that point."
Pedregon advanced to the final by outrunning Del Worsham in the first round, Tim Wilkerson in the second round and second-place points sitter Gary Scelzi. In the semifinal, Pedregon and Scelzi both battled through tire smoke and loss of traction. Even though Scelzi was ahead at about half track, Pedregon was able to move by at the stripe.
"We beat some good cars today," Pedregon said. "We beat Worsham, an outstanding car, and Wilkerson, guys who are up there in points. We also beat Scelzi in a pedaling (on and off the throttle) contest. That was an exciting race. I wasn't too excited at about half track during that race when I saw him about a car and half ahead of me."
Pedregon is happy with what his Advance Auto Parts team accomplished this weekend.
"We're getting close, and you would think we would just go ahead and win it," Pedregon said. "Along as we keep going to final rounds with this Advance Auto Parts car, we should be in good shape. I said this on the West Coast swing when we went to a couple of finals, if we can keep going rounds, the wins will come. I've don this for so long, and this is the way you do things."
Pedregon battled more than just the weather this weekend, as he felt a little under the weather as well. Despite the challenge, Pedregon drove his Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car to his third final of the 2004 season.
"The last two days - I don't know if it's been a sinus infection or what - I have been really fatigued and had an upset stomach. Combine that wit h the extremely hot weather conditions this weekend, it's been pretty difficult. I managed to do my job, despite being about 75 percent . I'm going to rest for a couple of days and get ready for Reading (Pa.)."
Indianapolis, Sunday: Cruz Pedregon grabbed the fourth position in the Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car for tomorrow's 50th Anniversary U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Pedregon, who logged a 4.844-second elapsed time at 315.93 mph to open the weekend on Friday night, maintained that solid effort throughout. He also made a great run to close out qualifying as well.
"We made a good run on our final one," said Pedregon, who logged a 4.89-second elapsed time during the fifth and final qualifying session today. "We definitely needed to get down the track on that last one, and we did that. (Crew chief) Wes (Cerny) tried his 'hot track' set up on that last one, and it worked. The track was a little bit better than we were set up for. The key for Wes was to get the car down the track, though. We feel really good about tomorrow. Whatever the weather conditions are, we'll be ready for them.
Pedregon has a tough first round opponent tomorrow in Del Worsham, the same driver he beat in the finals of the 1992 U.S. Nationals - his first victory in this historic event. Even though this is the biggest race of the year, Pedregon doesn't feel any extra stress.
"We're pretty relaxed for this one," Pedregon continued. "I feel like I've learned how to deal with the pressure and am pretty confident about what we have. It's an exciting race and we're going to have fun. Really, when we pull up to the starting line, it's just another race. It's important I pull to the line, in any race, like it's the last race of my career. I always give it my all, just like every other race weekend. Coming into this race, I felt like we had an excellent shot. I still believe that. No pressure, I know we have a good car and we'll go out there and see what we can do."
Indianapolis, Saturday: Cruz Pedregon, driver of the Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car, remains in a solid-qualifying position for this weekend's 50th annual U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Pedregon, who has won this event three times in his career, currently sits fourth on the strength of a 4.844-second elapsed time at 315.93 mph, set during last night's first session. Pedregon feels the team is in good shape heading into tomorrow's final two rounds of qualifying.
"We're in a good position," Pedregon said. "We were looking to capitalize on our efforts during tonight's session, but it just didn't happen. We need to focus on tomorrow.
"We had a really good run right in the middle of the day earlier," Pedregon continued. "It ended up being a great test run, despite shutting the car off early. It showed a lot of promise and that's something we'll try to build on. I'm pleased that we found a warm-track set up. We're racing during the day, so there's no doubt that making a good run in the heat was important.
Pedregon talked about what's in store for the final day of qualifying.
"We have two more runs tomorrow," Pedregon said. "We'll take the night tune up off of it, and we'll see what happened. I feel real good about this car right now. The track is in excellent conditions too - it's always good here. NHRA does a good job of grooming and prepping this track. If it's warm like it was today, I think we'll run pretty well. We'll have to fine tune on it a little on the top end, but that shouldn't be a problem."
Indianapolis, Friday: Cruz Pedregon made the best of tonight's single session of qualifying, placing the Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car in the provisional third position for this weekend's Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
With five sessions instead of the traditional four for the Nationals, the team had a chance to get a head start on the weekend. Pedregon lapped the historic quarter mile in 4.844 seconds at 315.93 mph. Two sessions are slated for both Saturday and Sunday.
"It was a good run," Pedregon said. "(Crew chief) Wes (Cerny) was a little bit concerned about the track. It rained hard again last night, and he was concerned about the 200-300 foot area of the track. He backed it off a little bit and it made a good run.
"It takes a lot of pressure off of us. Now, we feel like we're on pace for what we want to do. I'm so happy we tested here last week, and we just had the payoff for our testing. We we're out here working and doing the right thing. This is definitely a tough field to crack with more than 25 cars. The key out here is to be smart. When the track is quick, we need to go quick.
Indianapolis, pre-race: Cruz Pedregon, driver of the Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Funny Car, had a dream when he was a child. He wanted to be the name NHRA's legendary announcer Dave McClelland bellowed as the winner of drag racing's biggest weekend. It's a dream held by many drivers and teams as we remember all the great events of the past that help define this year's Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
That dream certainly became a reality for Pedregon, who, en route to his first championship, captured the biggest race of his career in 1992 - the U.S. Nationals. It was the first of his three victories at this historic event (1994 & 1995). This year marks the 50th anniversary of the professional drag racing's "Big Go," so memories of the past will be flowing freely on this special weekend.
Every night, as the drama of the world's biggest drag race played out at Indianapolis Raceway Park, Cruz, along with brothers Tony and Frank, huddled closely to a small radio inside their home in Southern California and intently listened to the latest updates and elapsed times that shaped that year's "Big Go." McClelland, who gave the updates, spoke of the sport's biggest heroes - Don Prudhomme, Shirley Muldowney, 'Big Daddy' Don Garlits - the names that defined the first 50 years of professional drag racing and the NHRA.
"It was magical," Pedregon said. "When you're just a young boy, things like the U.S. Nationals were bigger than life. I can still, to this day, repeat some of the qualifying results from Dave McClelland. Just competing in the U.S. Nationals became a dream of mine."
Let's fast-forward to 1992, Pedregon more than just competed in the grand spectacle of drag racing, he won it, driving past Del Worsham in the final and writing his name alongside Prudhomme, Muldowney, and Garlits.
"You can not accurately describe the feeling I had when I won that race," said Pedregon, who was in the midst of a five-race win streak at the time. "Everything that I had ever dreamed of as a little boy had come true. It was one of the most emotional moments of my professional career. I still remember those feelings as it happened yesterday. It was really powerful."
With Pedregon and the Advance Auto Parts Racing team starting to put things together, could number four be around the corner.
"I think we have a team good enough to make it happen," said Pedregon, who drove to two straight final rounds on the recently completed Western Swing. "We have made some strides and we now have the consistency, combined with performance, to make some real noise this weekend."
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