Topeka: Tony Pedregon final summary

Tony Pedregon Drives to Second Round

Q Racing Driver Moves Up To 9th in NHRA POWERade Points

TOPEKA, Kan. (May 29, 2005) --Q Racing Nitro Funny Car driver Tony Pedregon moved his way to the second round of eliminations during today's 17th annual O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka.

Hot and humid conditions made for a lot of smoke in Topeka. Pedregon had the second best reaction time of the round (.068 seconds), but spun the tires early and ran a 8.742 second elapsed time at 98.06 mph. Robert Hight clicked off a 4.871-second elapsed time at 311.85 mph.

"We spun the tires early in the second run of eliminations," said Pedregon. "The car was giving us a short window of opportunity and we overpowered the track. We're going to test in Chicago next and I am confident that Dickie Venables (Crew Chief) and the rest of the 'Q' Racing team will fix the problem. We'll be ready to race the Route 66 Raceway."

In the first round, Pedregon overpowered Del Worsham with a 4.837-second elapsed time at 323.35 mph to Worsham's 4.860-second elapsed time at 319.98 mph.

After this weekend, Tony Pedregon moved up to the No. 9 spot in NHRA POWERade Funny Car points with 405.

-pr-