PEDREGON TOP TOYOTA IN NHRA MILE HIGH NATIONALS QUALIFYING
DENVER, CO – Cruz Pedregon bounced back from a massive explosion on Friday to place fourth in Funny Car with a 
3.992-second pass and lead Toyota in qualifying for Sunday’s NHRA Mile High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in suburban Denver.
Saturday’s performance is the fifth top-five qualifying effort for Pedregon this season. The two-time world champion won earlier in the year at Charlotte. He will square off with Jonnie Lindberg in Sunday’s opening round.
“I can’t say enough about this Snap-on Toyota team,” said Pedregon, after a brand new Funny Car body was destroyed on Friday. “I’m so proud of the guys from Aaron (Brooks) to Glen (Huszar) to all of the guys. We spent two weeks building that body and that disaster yesterday just took all of the wind out of our sails. To come back today and have two top-five type runs really shows the character of this entire team. We’re qualified in a good spot, now we’re just going to go out there tomorrow and try continue what we started.”
Shawn Langdon also qualified in the top half of the Funny Car field with an eighth, while Kalitta Motorsports teammate J.R. Todd will open eliminations from the tenth spot. Langdon will face Tim Wilkerson in a match-up with major playoff implications on Sunday, while Todd will run Ron Capps in the first round.
In Top Fuel, Richie Crampton registered his top run of the weekend with a 3.822 in Saturday’s final session to jump up to fifth. It matches Crampton’s previous best qualifying effort of the season set in Phoenix. He will match-up with Terry McMillen on Sunday.
“It has been a pretty exciting weekend thus far,” said Crampton, who won the prestigious Gatornationals in March. “We qualified well and the whole Kalitta Air/Toyota team is doing a really good job. It looks like we are on the preferred side of the ladder, so I am ready for tomorrow.”
Antron Brown, the defending race champion, placed eighth and will race Scott Palmer in the opening round on Sunday, while Doug Kalitta qualified tenth and takes on Tony Schumacher.
Sunday’s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series eliminations can be shown live on FOX beginning at 3:00 p.m. (ET). The race is the first leg of the three-race Western Swing.
