Tony Pedregon pointed out on Saturday during the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida, he didn’t subscribe to the superstition of the No. 1 qualifier jinx. On Sunday, he showed why. The two-time NHRA world champion from Torrence, California drove his Quaker State-sponsored flopper to his first victory of 2008 by stopping Gary Densham in the final round.

 

“Qualifying number one anytime is an accomplishment in itself but to be able to go into eliminations with that kind of pressure, and we had some pretty tough opponents, this is a good day,” said Pedregon. “The weather hung in there, it got a little warmer than the crew chiefs would've liked, but under these circumstances the teams who can adapt better are going to have an advantage.” 

Sometimes championship prowess doesn’t mean scoring low elapsed time every single round. Even though Pedregon nailed the best run of the first round, he did what was necessary to win from then on.

Tony Pedregon pointed out on Saturday during the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida, he didn’t subscribe to the superstition of the No. 1 qualifier jinx. On

Sunday, he showed why. The two-time NHRA world champion from Torrence, California drove his Quaker State-sponsored flopper to his first victory of 2008 by stopping Gary Densham in the final round.

 

“Qualifying number one anytime is an accomplishment in itself but to be able to go into eliminations with that kind of pressure, and we had some pretty tough opponents, this is a good day,” said Pedregon. “The weather hung in there, it got a little warmer than the crew chiefs would've liked, but under these circumstances the teams who can adapt better are going to have an advantage.” 

Sometimes championship prowess doesn’t mean scoring low elapsed time every single round. Even though Pedregon nailed the best run of the first round, he did what was necessary to win from then on.

“We ran slower and it was like one round we were real aggressive and the next round we were maybe a little too conservative but I said Dickie just split the difference.  I know that's what he was thinking and he had a very good game plan coming into today's racing so that's a very good difference for us to be able to recover especially from what happened with yesterday’s condition.” 

Pedregon really couldn’t believe the fortunes bestowed upon him in Gainesville.

“A little over a month ago I was laid up in a hospital bed with a burnt hand,” Pedregon said. “I was just thinking that those are some tough knocks and if that's what it takes to get to the top then we'll do it.  We have a great team and it's really been non-stop for them. Our sponsors have hung in there with us and they deserved this win.” 

A disturbing trend seems to have fallen on the Pedregon brothers. When one blows up their race car, the other reaches the final round.

“I was trying to watch the race but sometimes it's hard to gauge two cars coming down the track so I peeked over at the television monitor,” Pedregon said. “It's pretty scary being inside the car and having that experience.  When I saw his car and I saw the explosion, I was just hoping that it didn't catch on fire like mine. 

“Anytime you have a high speed accident anything can happen.  You're really at the mercy of so many different variables and once it blew up I saw a really quick flash fire and really at that point it wasn't a whole lot of fire.  I know Cruz and I know he's probably as good as anyone out here under those conditions and once I saw him driving the car, the car actually had a bounce. 

“The back end of the car probably was 4 or 5 feet off the ground and I thought it was going to flip.  I've never seen a car do that.  It just goes to show you how violent some of these explosions can be.  I saw him driving the heck out of it and I thought, ‘Just hang on -- just get that thing slowed down.  I had to find out and make sure he won because I knew that was the first thing he was going to ask me.  It's a little disappointing. It costs us a lot of money when something like that happens.  If he can walk away from it, then we can buy the parts and make other bodies. I refuse to fall in love with any of those parts on my car.”