Indianapolis: Tony Pedregon Friday summary

Tony Pedregon Wraps Up First Day of Qualifying

INDIANAPOLIS (Sept. 3, 2004) -- Tony Pedregon and the Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car wrapped up the first day of qualifying for this weekend's 50th anniversary U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Pedregon maneuvered his way to a 5.060-second elapsed time at 271.90 mph. He will be gunning for a fourth-straight, top-eight effort when qualifying resumes tomorrow. Today's single session marked the first of an unusual five sessions of qualifying, unique to the U.S. Nationals.

"There was a little more humidity out there than we thought," Pedregon said. "It appeared, within the first 400 feet, that there wasn't anyone that ran quicker. We have a new body and it just wore a lot of clutch.

"I think one of the challenges was that it was a little dark out there," Pedregon added. "There was so much clutch dust that I couldn't see that well. It's hard enough to keep these cars in the center of the track. As much power as it was making, it drifted over to the right and that put it right over the edge. We have a couple more passes tomorrow and another evening run under decent conditions. No glitches at all. The car responded early and that's important. If you get the car to run well in the first part, we know what it will do in the second half."

-PedregonRacing.com