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Denver: Tony Pedregon Saturday summary

Tony Pedregon Qualifies Second at Bandimere Tough Opponent Awaits in Round Number One MORRISON, Colo. (July 18, 2004) -- Tony Pedregon wielded his Quaker State Racing Nitro Funny Car to the second-qualifying position for this weekend's Mopar ...

Published: Jul 18, 2004, 7:50 PM

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Tony Pedregon Qualifies Second at Bandimere
Tough Opponent Awaits in Round Number One

MORRISON, Colo. (July 18, 2004) -- Tony Pedregon wielded his Quaker State Racing Nitro Funny Car to the second-qualifying position for this weekend's Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway.

Despite lacking any on-track information about Colorado's higher elevation, the reigning NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car champion placed his Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo second on the first pass, clicking off a 4.946-second elapsed time at 309.56 mph. The California resident smoked the tires in session number two.

"I think we made the best out of our qualifying today," Pedregon said. "We're in the number two slot based on one run. Going into the last session, we really didn't have anything to lose. We had the conditions, so we were shooting for low elapsed time. We were just a little more aggressive than we thought it (the track) would be. But, when you are already number two, the only thing to set your sights for is number one.

"Tomorrow is real encouraging for us because I think we were able to adapt to the elevation," Pedregon continued. "We're real happy because this is our first time at getting information from this track. We seemed to have made the right adjustments. Regardless of what conditions we have tomorrow, I'm real confident about what we have. It's real important for us to go into the later rounds this weekend." Pedregon will face Gary Scelzi in the first round of eliminations tomorrow.

"We have an awful tough team to race in the first round, but I don't think that changes our strategy," Pedregon said. "If anything, it's going to keep us on our toes. We have a tendency to want to be aggressive anyway. We're going to be smart, we're going to try and read the conditions. Our approach is to always put it on the edge because we know we have the race team and the Quaker State product that's not going to fail us."

Quaker State Racing Notebook:

TIRE REACTION: Tony Pedregon, driver of the Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car, reacted to Goodyear's new tire compound that was introduced for this weekend's Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway.

"A lot of credit should go to Goodyear," Pedregton said. "They were able to make the transition. Goodyear gave us a tire and gave us information about what direction we might want to go. It's five pounds lighter per tire and it's a similar compound to one we have had in the past, but still a slightly different design. As you look at the entire field -- both Top Fuel and Funny Car -- it's very close and competitive. We have had minimal problems, if any."

REMEMBERING DARRELL: The entire NHRA POWERade Drag Racing community is remembering the life of fallen Top Fuel driver Darrell Russell with a special decal. Russell was tragically killed because of an incident during the NHRA national event at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill., two weekends ago.

-PedregonRacing.com-

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