Special Events

That’s the situation that Cruz Pedregon found himself in on Nov. 16 in Pomona, Calif. He’d just won his first-round matchup in NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Funny Car eliminations, beating Jerry Toliver to the 1,000-foot finish line in his Advance Auto Parts Toyota Solara with an elapsed time of 4.142sec at more than 300mph. Now, if his brother Tony, himself a two-time Funny Car champ, knocked out Robert Hight – Cruz’s chief rival in the points – Cruz was the champion in Funny Car for the first time since 1992.

“It was a feeling of disbelief,” Cruz Pedregon says of watching Tony win one of the most important races of Cruz’s life. “To be honest, when they told me I could win the championship based on one or two runs, I didn’t believe them. I was expecting a long hard day. When we won our first round, it was a huge relief, but I thought, ‘Oh man, we’re so close…’ I thought I had to win the first round just to increase my chances. I thought it was going to be the next round, or the round after that. I didn’t count the points like some of the guys did.

“Down at the finish line, I was watching the monitor, and when I saw the scenario where Tony against Robert Hight would determine the championship, it was surreal. When Tony did win, I had that feeling of excitement, but then I was like, ‘Man, are you sure? Maybe we need to re-tally the math.’ I guess it was such a big moment for me, I was speechless.”

That’s understandable; it had been a long time coming. Pedregon had the unique experience of spending his career in Funny Cars at the same time as an absolute legend of the sport, John Force. In fact, Pedregon was the only man to interrupt Force’s string of titles in the ’90s, the only driver other than Force in that entire decade to win a Funny Car championship.

“I wake up every day thanking my lucky stars because it’s something I worked at for so long. I had so many bumps in the road and thought, ‘Heck, maybe it’s not meant to be.’ Now, it makes up for all those hard times. I know the word perseverance gets thrown around a lot in sports, but that was me right there. I just had to hang with it and believe,” he says.

Pedregon’s second title comes in the second year of NHRA’s “Countdown to the Championship” playoff format. At the end of the regular season, with six races left, the points are reset, with the top-10 drivers in each category receiving a new points total based on their position in the point standings. From there, it’s a whole new ballgame.

“We looked at it as two different seasons, because that’s what it really is,” Pedregon explains. “[Funny Car competitor Tim Wilkerson, who ended up second at year end] had a summer to remember, and really piled up a lot of points. Our strategy was to be consistent, be steady, not get too ahead of ourselves and try to turn it up at the end. That’s exactly what we did. We knew the last six races were going to be for the big prize; we thought that way and it worked out for us - it could have easily gone the other way. We were able to be our best at the end when it counted.”

Pedregon began running the Camry Solara body earlier this year, saying at the time that he thought there were some aerodynamic advantages – an important consideration when you’re hitting well over 300mph. However, his relationship with Toyota goes back a bit farther, starting with running the Pro/Celebrity Race at the Grand Prix of Long Beach in 1994. For the past three years, Pedregon has run a USAC Midget team with Toyota power.