Patience is Rewarded
Rain on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday postponed the final rounds of the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals until Wednesday, Aug. 22, delaying many teams who were anxious to get to Indianapolis and test for the U.S. Nationals. Reading was the final chance for racers to make it into the eight spots in the Countdown to the Championship. Here the CSK team of Del Worsham and Jeff Arend wait under wraps.
Tony Pedregon got the Funny Car win when his former boss, John Force, turned on the red light. Pedregon got his second win of the season in his Q Horsepower Chevy Impala SS, and the 34th of his career.
"It was certainly worth the wait for us," Pedregon said. "Mentally, I'm spent. We had to get up to race so many times only to have it start raining again. It stresses you out. The other thing was the track was totally different after all that rain so Dickie (Venables, tuner) and the guys did an excellent job of reading it today. To run a 4.78 right off in the semis probably helped us win the race because John had to look at that number and try to do something."
Tim Wilkerson met John Force in the semis, but Force got the win light. Wilkerson shook the tires early in the run, recovered, but trailed Force ever so slightly. Wilkerson ran 5.167 to Force's 4.929.
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"I think the track was so strange today, because no one has run on it for two days," explained Wilkerson. "I watched all the cars, except Tony Pedregon do the same thing. Even Hot Rod Fuller's did the same thing. And John had the same problem, but his was further out. So, maybe I'll check around a little bit and see what the other crew chiefs think about that. Mine had its boo-foo early and I got it gathered up, but then it dropped a hole and I shut it off early. I followed John down there. He was a little bit ahead of me, but not much. I just saw the front of his car.”
