Reading: Cruz Pedregon Friday summary

Cruz Pedregon Opens Weekend In Eighth
Top Half of the Field Qualifying Effort On Tap for Tomorrow

MOHNTON, Pa. (Oct. 8, 2004) -- Cruz Pedregon, driver of the Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car, opened the rain-delayed Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in the eighth-qualifying position.

The California resident logged a 4.875-second elapsed time at 309.56 mph, setting up two important qualifying sessions for tomorrow. Pedregon was very pleased with his first session.

"We had a great start to qualifying," Pedregon said. "Up until the final two qualifiers in that first session, we were in the No. 1 slot. It was an excellent opening pass and we used an entirely different set up than what we had last week in Chicago.

"We smoked the tires on the second pass," Pedregon added. "That's something we haven't done in a while. I'm pretty optimistic though because tomorrow looks good weather wise and I think we'll be back up or near the top three again."

Pedregon is going for four-straight top half of the field qualifying efforts.

-PedregonRacing.com