Gainesville: Cruz Pedregon final summary

PARTS FAILURE DELIVERS EARLY LOSS TO CRUZ PEDREGON IN GAINESVILLE

Gainesville, Florida (March 18, 2007) -- Cruz Pedregon and the Advance Auto Parts Race Team were highly charged for a strong outing at the 38th annual AC Delco NHRA Gatornationals after grabbing the top qualifying position in Friday's second qualifying session.Despite losing the top spot on Saturday, the team was still very confident as they headed into Sunday's Final Eliminations qualifying in the eight position with a 4.792 elapsed time.

In the first round, Cruz faced Jim Head.Cruz was on a nice run and leading at half-track, but a parts failure pushed the Advance Auto Parts Funny Car abruptly to the left causing it to tag the wall allowing Head to take the win.

"It is frustrating as we were on a good run until half track" stated Pedregon. "Our set up was for a 4.83 (seconds, elapsed time), but we just ran into a parts failure. I did my best to stay with it, but unbeknownst to me a hole developed in the oil tank, which caused the car to drift hard."

Crew Chief Wayne Dupuy added "We know this race car can win, we just need to flush out a few of these parts gremlins.Yes, it's frustrating because I know we can win any race. We have already shown what this Advance Auto Parts race car can do; we just need to have a little more consistency.I guarantee our team will get it worked out and be fully prepared for Houston."

"I know Wayne and the entire team will make the right adjustments," added Pedregon.b^0x001cOverall, I am still very confident and optimistic for our chances this season.We will be racing next weekend in San Antonio (IHRA race), which will give us a chance to collect more data to help prepare for Houston."

In 2006, Cruz Pedregon and the Advance Auto Parts Race Team once again finished in the top 10 in the NHRA point standings, with one win (Las Vegas).

-credit: pr