Big win in Richmond puts Pedregon back in the championship mix
RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 12) -- Advance Auto Parts Funny Car driver Cruz
Pedregon picked the perfect time to score his first victory of the 2008
season, charging back into the thick of the POWERade championship chase
with a huge win Sunday at Virginia Motorsports Park.
Racing with his title hopes in the balance, the 1992 world champ
delivered like a professional, claiming the No. 1 qualifying position
with the quickest 1,000-foot run in drag racing history and converting it
into his 24th career win Sunday to zoom to within 69 points of leader Tim
Wilkerson, whom Pedregon beat in the semifinals.
"I don't think I'm gonna be able to sleep tonight because I want to enjoy
this moment so much," said Pedregon, whose last win came two and a half
years ago. "I told the guys this morning that no matter what happened
today I wanted everyone to have fun. It was so cool to see them
celebrating with me down there when they came to pick me up. A lot of the
crew guys hadn't won before and they sure earned the right to celebrate
today.
"You know, I'm in awe of my crew chief, Rahn Tobler. Until he joined us
last September he had never tuned a Funny Car. Look how far he's come in
such a short amount of time. He had so much success with Shirley
Muldowney and I promised him I'd do my best if he came over here. He
could probably have any job he wants out here but we work really well
together and I'm glad to have him."
The 1992 world champion collected his 24th career win with a wire-to-wire
job on "Fast" Jack Beckman that began with a .016-second headstart and
ended with a 4.113-second clocking at 296.44 mph. Beckman's car lost
traction 100 feet into the run, forcing him to surrender.
Pedregon's win over Wilkerson in Round 3 was arguably the biggest of the
race as it effectively represented a 40-point swing in the points.
Pedregon's car was perfect, running a 4.134 at 296.76 mph in the win,
while Wilkerson encountered mechanical problems and slowed to a 4.438 at
250.78 mph.
In all four of Sunday's races, Pedregon managed to leave the starting
line ahead of his opponents.
"I feel like my driving has been solid and if I can gain any advantage at
all from inside the cockpit than all the better for our team," Pedregon
said. "Tim Wilkerson had a big lead coming in here and if he had run the
table it would have been near impossible to catch him. By beating him
today we kept our hopes alive. We still need something special to happen
in the last two races but we're a lot closer now than we were three days
ago.
"It was also a big-time thrill to do so well in Virginia because this is
the home state of Advance Auto Parts and I know we had a lot of extra
support at the track today."
-credit: pr
