NHRA

Indy ORP: Cruz Pedregon preview

VETERAN FUEL TUNER, RAHN TOBLER APPOINTED CREW CHIEF; JOINS PEDREGON RACING FOR U.S. NATIONALS INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 29, 2007) -- Cruz Pedregon, the 1992 NHRA Nitro Funny Car World Champion and his Advance Auto Parts team head ...

Published: Aug 30, 2007, 2:44 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

VETERAN FUEL TUNER, RAHN TOBLER APPOINTED CREW CHIEF; JOINS PEDREGON RACING FOR U.S. NATIONALS

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 29, 2007) -- Cruz Pedregon, the 1992 NHRA Nitro Funny Car World Champion and his Advance Auto Parts team head for Indianapolis and the biggest, most prestigious race of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, the U.S. Nationals, Aug. 29 -- Sept. 3, at the historic Raceway Park at Indianapolis in Clermont, Ind. Some may consider his U.S. Nationals performance record as nothing short of enviable especially considering he's a three-time winner at this historic strip.

"I've had three great victories at this track and many round wins here; probably more than at any other facility," said an appreciative Pedregon. "You know, I am just fortunate to have done well here. This is a first-class, big-time event and I appreciate all the hard work that goes into making it a success. It's the U.S. Nationals and I really get up for this event."

Pedregon hopes the key to success at this year's U.S. Nationals is the tuning abilities of veteran fuel tuner and new crew chief for Pedregon's Advance Auto Parts Funny Car team, Rahn Tobler.

"Rahn is the new head coach for the Advance Auto Parts Funny Car team," said Pedregon. "We appreciate Dickie's [Venables, crew chief for Tony Pedregon] and Kevin's [Butterfield, assistant crew chief for Cruz Pedregon] efforts the past two events. We are encouraged by our progress so far, and with Rahn, we have a guy to focus 100 percent on the Advance Auto Parts Funny Car and that's just what we need going into the biggest race of the year."

Pedregon is encouraged by his progress, but cautiously optimistic about his chances at a fourth trip to the Winner's Circle at the U.S. Nationals.

"This year is really no different than any other," Pedregon said. "We are bringing a car that is capable of winning the event- it's essentially the same car that Tony won with last weekend in Reading. But, hey, we still need solid runs from A to B, then qualify and race hard on Sunday. Here we have an extra qualifying run and two night sessions which evens the playing field for all of us. Now it's just getting Rahn familiar with the Funny Car which I think he'll do in a short period of time."

Pedregon is outside the top eight contending for the Championship, but is focused on each race for the remainder of the season.

"I get up for all the races, but this is a special race," said Pedregon. "It's an important goal for our team to get back into the top ten in points.That's our focus."

-credit: pr

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Indy ORP: Warren Johnson preview

Next article Indy ORP: Gary Densham preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Belgian firm to take over Renault/Alpine engine facility in Viry

WEC

WEC WEC 12 min

Belgian firm to take over Renault/Alpine engine facility in Viry

Jorge Martin the slowest Aprilia in Australia practice: “I'm used to riding with the Ducati here”

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

52 min

Jorge Martin the slowest Aprilia in Australia practice: “I'm used to riding with the Ducati here”

2027 Winter Series calendar: Three series across five circuits

General

Misc General 1 h

2027 Winter Series calendar: Three series across five circuits

Ducati says Aprilia “can do whatever they want” amid team order talks in MotoGP

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

1 h

Ducati says Aprilia “can do whatever they want” amid team order talks in MotoGP

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts