Reading: Tony Pedregon Friday summary

Tony Pedregon Start Maple Grove Weekend 10th
Quaker State Racing Readies for Saturday's Sessions

MOHNTON, Pa. (Oct. 8, 2004) -- Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car driver Tony Pedregon started this weekend's rain-delayed NHRA National Event at Maple Grove Raceway in the provisional 10th slot.

Pedregon clicked off a 4.885-second elapsed time at 303.57 mph, positioning the California resident to pursue a seventh-straight top half of the field qualifying effort. The defending Funny Car World Champion talked about his weekend.

"We were pretty happy with our run, even though we ran on seven cylinders," Pedregon said. "We're encouraged because we found some power that we had missed in Chicago last weekend. And with cooler weather coming for the rest of the weekend, we think we have favorable conditions for this team.

"We want to make progress in smaller steps," Pedregon added. "In the past, I think we tended to be a little too aggressive. I think we're going to prepare the team to be more consistent. It could be a power race this weekend, which I like."

-PedregonRacing.com