Commerce: Cruz Pedregon Friday summary

Cruz Pedregon Runs Career-Best Speed At Atlanta Dragway

Commerce, GA, May 14, 2004 -- Former Funny Car champion Cruz Pedregon powered the Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Monte Carlo to a career best speed of 324.12 mph in the first qualifying session today for the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga.

"It's always nice when you're able to better your career bests," said Pedregon. "324 mph is strong, and we're very pleased. It was very warm during that first session today, and to run numbers like that is pretty impressive."

Pedregon is currently qualified 13th with an elapsed time of 4.977 seconds.

"Tomorrow we're going to work towards getting into the top-half of the field," added Pedregon. "It looks like we're going to have more of the same weather conditions that we had today, with a cloudy overcast, so it should be a good day for racing."

Pedregon won at Atlanta Dragway in 1998 and was runner up in 1995.JHe ran low ET in 1992, '95 and '98 and had top speed in 1996, '98.

Two more qualifying sessions are slated for Saturday May 15, at 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Final eliminations are scheduled for Sunday, May 16, at 11:00 a.m.

Qualifying coverage of the NHRA Southern Nationals can be seen on ESPN from 8:00 -- 10:00 p.m. (ET) on Saturday, May 15. Final eliminations can be seen on ESPN2 from 7:00 -- 10:00 p.m. (ET) on Sunday, May 16.

-pr-