News and Media Releases

First #1 Qualifying Spot of 2009

07/04/2009

Trouble in Second Elimination Round Ends Day Early for Quaker State Driver.

The NHRA Funny Car Series made its first of two trips to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend for the running of the tenth annual NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals.

Racing action began on Friday with qualifying rounds. In his first qualifying run, Pedregon turned in a clean pass putting the Quaker State Impala fifth on the charts after round one. With only one round completed on Friday, the Quaker State team looked forward to Saturday's rounds in hopes of improving their spot.

The two-time champion didn't have as great of a run in the second round on Saturday as his engine shut off at about the 600-foot mark causing him to have a slow run. However his third and final qualifying pass was his best run at 4.100 seconds, 302.62 miles per hour. With this strong pass, Pedregon was able to claim the No. 1 qualifying spot for the first time of the 2009 season.

Pedregon and the Quaker State team were ready for Sunday's elimination rounds hoping to follow up their strong qualifying performance with a final round win, which would be their first of the season.

The Brownsburg, Indiana native had a good looking pass in the first elimination round defeating Del Worsham and moving on to round two where he was paired up with his brother Cruz.

Unfortunately for Pedregon trouble plagued his second pass in eliminations. The Quaker State driver dropped a cylinder before the 660-ft mark which caused his Impala to push to the left. Pedregon tried to keep his Quaker State machine going straight but crossed the centerline taking out the finish line timing cones. Pedregon was disqualified for crossing the centerline which caused the loss to his brother Cruz and ended his day early.

The NHRA Funny Car Series will take a weekend off before returning to action on April 16 - 19 for the running of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia.