Phoenix: Tony Pedregon final summary

Tony Pedregon And The Q Power Race Team Unleash All Their Horses With Win In Phoenix; Set National E.T. Record PHOENIX, Ariz. (February 26, 2007) -- Tony Pedregon and his Q Power Nitro Funny Car Team set a national elapsed time record en route to ...

Tony Pedregon And The Q Power Race Team Unleash All Their Horses With Win In Phoenix; Set National E.T. Record

PHOENIX, Ariz. (February 26, 2007) -- Tony Pedregon and his Q Power Nitro Funny Car Team set a national elapsed time record en route to his 33rd career victory at the Checker Schuck's Kragen NHRA Nationals, held at Firebird Int'l Raceway in Phoenix. Pedregon's opening-round pass of 4.701 seconds backed up his 4.659 second qualifying run, making it an official NHRA record, which is worth 20 bonus points in the POWERade standings.

Qualified in the 2nd position, Tony Pedregon easily beat Scott Kalitta in the first round with his 4.701 second run at 326.71 mph which eventually delivered him into the record books. In the second round, Pedregon beat Jim Head with a 4.924/254.95 mph to a 5.729/168.09 mph.

In the semi-finals, Pedregon beat Gary Densham with a 5.077/233.84 mph, but not after a terrific piece of driving as the Q Power Funny Car was drifting hard toward the center line at 1000 feet. Pedregon was able to get off the throttle just enough to take the win.

In the finals, Tony faced the #1 qualifier Robert Hight, which in the history of this event is only the fourth time the #1 and #2 qualifiers have met in the Funny Car final round. Pedregon was out of the gate first (an event best .052 reaction time) and the Q Power Funny Car took the win with an impressive 4.803 second at 326.32 mph.

"What a great weekend for this Q Power race team," stated a jubilant Pedregon. "Dickie [Venables, crew chief] and the guys worked so hard this weekend.&nbs p; We saw so many 4.60's last year that we knew we needed to do something. We needed all the Q Power to win, but to come out of here with the win and the record...wow, I mean that's pretty impressive. Anytime you can qualify well, set a national record, and win the race with the two quickest cars in the class going at it in the final, I'd say it's a great weekend. The fans sure got their money's worth."

With this win, Tony moves up to 2nd in championship points, just 6 points out of first. This was Tony's first win at Firebird International Speedway.