





Cruz Pedregon might have been frustrated at times over the past four years but the two-time NHRA Funny Car world champion never gave up and his perseverance paid off Sunday when he and the Snap-on Tools Toyota Camry team won the NGK Spark Plugs Four-Wide NHRA National.

Pedregon’s last trip to a Mello Yello Drag Racing Series winner’s circle was at Englishtown, New Jersey, in the ninth event of the 2014 season.

The winless streak stretched to 92 NHRA national events.

“92 is a good number because (1992) is the year I won my first (NHRA Funny Car world) championship,” he said of the year when he also won the first of his 36 Mello Yello event titles. “It must be my lucky number.”

His other championship was in 2008.

Pedregon, a Southern California native who lives near Indianapolis where his team is based, won with a time of 4.059 seconds at 310.84 mph on a tricky track to defeat runner-up John Force (4.098), Tommy Johnson Jr. (4.43) and No. 1 qualifier Courtney Force (6.215) in the final foursome at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte.

“This one ranks right up there (with my first),” said Pedregon, who also was the quickest to react at the starting line.

“I was thinking maybe I wasn’t destined to win again. I don’t want to be out here if I’m not competitive. What motivates me is having a good race car that people respect.”

The opposition certainly will respect him when he arrives at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia, Friday for the next event on the Mello Yello tour.

And the only thing brighter than the sunny North Carolina sky was Pedregon’s beaming smile.

“I didn’t believe my ears when Caleb (Cox), our team manager radioed me and told me I won,” he said in the media center. “It was surreal and still is a little bit surreal.”

Pedregon, who is involved with tuning the car, gave full credit to crew chief Aaron Brooks and new assistant Glen Huszar.

Pedregon became the fifth different Funny Car winner in six races, and the third Toyota Camry-bodied car to win a title this year.

Force, however, showed you can’t keep an old man down, especially when he is the greatest Funny Car driver in drag racing history.

One week after failing to qualify a week ago for eliminations near Houston, the 68-year-old runner-up was close to becoming the 40th professional driver in NHRA history to follow a DNQ to leave the next event with the trophy.