Madison: Tony Pedregon final summary

Tony Pedregon Drives to Semifinals at Gateway
Q Racing Funny Car Adjust to the Heat

MADISON, Ill. (June 26, 2005) -- Tony Pedregon maneuvered his Q Racing Nitro Funny Car to the semifinals during tonight's NHRA National Event at Gateway International Raceway.

Pedregon, the 2003 POWERade Funny Car World Champion, lost a close duel to Ron Capps. Pedregon logged a 4.951-second elapsed time at 312.93 mph, but it wasn't enough to hold off Capps 4.953-second run at 295.21 mph.

"We had a good weekend overall," Pedregon said. "The car held together well and I think we made a lot of the right adjustments this weekend. It's good news to runs so well in such tough conditions."

Tony's trek through the field was impressive, defeating Whit Bazemore in round one and Robert Hight in the quarterfinals. In the second round, the California native clicked off a 5.086-second elapsed time at 296.24 mph. Crew chief Dickie Venables talked about the weekend.

"The car went down the track in pretty much every round and we're happy about that," Venables said. "To be consistent on this type of race track is very good. We just got beat in a close race. The car ran the way we set it up, so it's responding to what we want to do."

-PedregonRacing.com