News and Media Releases

Tony Makes It To 3rd Round

30/03/2009

Coming off of a final round appearance two weeks ago, Tony Pedregon and his Quaker State team hoped to continue the momentum gained in Phoenix and pull out another strong showing at Houston Raceway Park the home track for sponsor Quaker State.

Pedregon who has multiple wins at the track was set for the 22nd annual O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals presented by Pennzoil and hoping to add to his list of victories.

Qualifying rounds began on Friday and continued into Saturday with Pedregon struggling in his first two runs.

The Quaker State driver broke on the burnout getting ready for his first pass and was unable to turn in a time. In his second qualifying pass the two-time champion lost his engine around the 660-foot mark with a pretty big fireball but was able to post a time for that run.

In his third and final pass the Brownsburg, Indiana native pulled off a good looking run that got him back in the show. With his 4.160 second run Pedregon ended up in the top half of the qualifying order in the ninth position.

During Sunday’s eliminations Pedregon earned a first round win over Mike Neff after making the second quickest pass of the round. His win also earned him lane choice in the next round where he faced off against his brother Cruz. Cruz was just a little too quick on the tree helping the Quaker State driver advance to the semifinals.

Unfortunately the Indiana native suffered a loss in the third round of eliminations in his run against Jack Beckman just falling short of a second consecutive final round appearance.

The NHRA Funny Car Series returns to action next weekend, April 2 – 5, for the running of the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals April 2 – 5, SummitRacing.com NHRA nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada.