NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Coming off his emotional victory in Norwalk, the Western Swing wasn’t quite the three-race trek that Cruz Pedregon envisioned. But the Funny Car veteran insisted everything is still going according to plan with his new team.

Pedregon had just one round win during the three-race trip, but he saw plenty of positives amidst the early defeats. Of course, he would have liked to have accumulated more round wins, but the team learned plenty and Pedregon feels good about his team’s chances at this weekend’s Menards NHRA Nationals presented by PetArmor in Topeka.

“I’m feeling optimistic and we just we just got tripped up there a little bit with some cylinder drops in Denver and Sonoma,” Pedregon said. “We just had some near misses there, but could we could have gone rounds both races. Winning (in Norwalk) definitely boosted our confidence, but at the same time, we're still 10 races into our whole team.

“I think we’re right where I thought we would be. We're looking to make a run here, for sure. This is the time of year where you need to make it happen. My whole career, I've joked about this, but I’m notoriously a slow starter for whatever reason.”

Pedregon noted his two championships came on the strength of two late-season runs, and it’s something he’d like to replicate this year. It’s not championship or bust for the Funny Car standout, but he would like to see his team go on a late-season spurt.

He ran well during Friday’s qualifying session, going 3.962-seconds at 322.19 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, setting the stage for what he hopes is a productive weekend. Pedregon won four times at Heartland Motorsports Park in the 1990s and he’s more than ready to taste that success again.

“The team feels confident and we're still getting better as we go,” Pedregon said. “You have to have a good perspective on everything. But I would say we're capable of making a run here and I'm not saying championship, I'm just saying a run, whatever that means, whether it’s winning more races, getting to more finals going, or, the biggest thing, going rounds. This is one of my favorite tracks here. We’ve won a lot of races here in the 90s and it’s just a really good surface.”

Crew chief John Collins, who joined the team this year after leading Tommy Johnson Jr. in the class, shares Pedregon’s optimism and belief the group can go on a late-season roll. Pedregon is currently ninth in points, but he entered the weekend less than a round out of eighth and within striking distance of the top five.

It would take some work over the next three races to enter the Countdown to the Championship in the top five, but Pedregon is all for this current stretch of a lot of racing and not many weekends off.

“It’s going to come fast and furious,” Pedregon said. “I mean, it's a good time to go on a run. They’re all too aware that you make your moves in the Countdown. It’s a little bit like the NFL playoffs. You get in there as a wildcard and you can go on a little run. We're going to go there with not a lot to lose attitude. We're going to be swinging.”