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Sonoma: Tony Pedregon Friday summary
Tony Pedregon A Strong Second Out of the Box Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Funny Car On Track SONOMA, Calif. (July 30, 2004) -- Tony Pedregon drove his Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car to the second position during today's first ...
Published: Jul 31, 2004, 6:18 PM
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Tony Pedregon A Strong Second Out of the Box
Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Funny Car On Track
SONOMA, Calif. (July 30, 2004) -- Tony Pedregon drove his Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car to the second position during today's first two rounds of qualifying for this weekend's Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
Pedregon, who is going for his fourth number-one qualifier of the 2004 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season, made a 4.886-second elapsed time at 318.17 mph.
"We were happy we were able to adapt," said Pedregon, on the changing track conditions. "We were even better than the number two spot. We adjusted for the lower track temperature and the 85-percent rule. We are in different conditions from Seattle.
"Our Quaker State motor oil never fails and that's one of the factors in this great qualifying effort," Pedregon added. "The adjustments (Crew chief) Dickie (Venables) made were right on the money. I think if we were the last pair, we would have been able to go for a lot more. Any time you can qualify in the top three or four in one of these fields, you're off to a good start. We don't know what tomorrow holds, but if it warms up, that will be good for us. We have to make the changes as they come. We're real happy with the car."
Quaker State Racing Notebook:
LOW VISIBILITY: The second qualifying session for today's Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals came at a tough time for the competitors. With the cars heading West, the sun was setting in their eyes, making visibility an issue.
Tony Pedregon, driver of the Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car, commented on the low visibility.
"I couldn't see the track out there on that last run," Pedregon said. "That's only happened to me one time before. During the qualifying time in that car, the sun was right in my eyes. It really didn't get bad until about half-track. I literally had zero vision. Fortunately the communication between my self and (Crew chief) Dickie (Venables) is really good. He told me that most of the cars had a tendency to move towards the inside of the track. "From about 700 feet, I was literally driving by memory and feel," Pedregon added. "Because of what Dickie told me, I favored the car to the left and it was just enough to keep the car from going over the center line."
POWER PACK: Tony Pedregon drove his Quaker State Racing Monte Carlo Nitro Funny Car through the traps at 318.17 mph, the second fastest speed so far this weekend. Only John Force's 318.84 mph is faster.
"Any time a car is accelerating like that -- running 318.17 mph -- it shows me the car is really making horsepower," Pedregon said. "I have to thank the Quaker State engineers because they have been able to reduce the friction enough in the engine for us to get to these great speeds. It looks like mechanically that everything is staying together as well."
-PedregonRacing.com
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