By Susan Wade
Photos by Ron Lewis
7/20/04

he idea of a multi-car team is not simply to share data but rather to take advantage of it. As the 2004 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series season heads into its second half, Cruz and Tony Pedregon finally are doing that with their Funny Car alliance. And Dickie Venables, crew chief for Tony's Quaker State Chevrolet Monte Carlo, said the NHRA's mandated new Goodyear slicks, minimum tire pressure and 85 percent nitromethane shouldn't disrupt their momentum too much.

When Cruz qualified his Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo No. 1 with a career-best 4.769-second elapsed time at Columbus, Ohio, he did more than set the National Trail Raceway record and earn his first top spot since the 1998 Finals at Pomona, Calif. He sent the message that these brothers, who have won one series championship apiece and are among the top five on the class' career victory list, form a formidable bloc.

Following that 10th of 23 races, the Pedregons qualified second and third at Englishtown and Cruz was fifth at St. Louis in the Wes Cerny-tuned Chevy. At St. Louis, Cruz advanced to the semifinals for the first time all year.

"Finally," Cruz said after that quickest-at-Columbus run. While he and Cerny struggled with ignition problems, Tony and Venables had contradicted critics by taking the No. 1 qualifying position three times and reaching the final round at Phoenix.

Tony also posted a 4.716 e.t. at 331.28 miles an hour at Chicago that, for about 40 hours, was the ultimate in Funny Car performance. And he didn't have the benefit of the aerodynamically advanced Monte Carlo until the Atlanta event, the seventh on the schedule. Their effort wasn't bad for a team whose first goal was merely to qualify for the season-opening Winternationals.

Cruz had started eliminations from the No. 2 position at Bristol in just his third race with the new Monte Carlo body. But he had lasted past the first round only twice before Columbus and still hasn't cracked the top 10.

"Cerny had been really frustrated because our car wasn't running the same as Tony's," Cruz said. "The cars are set up the same and run all the same parts and really should just be running close to the same. But we haven't been running on all eight cylinders and we finally found the gremlin that had been hurting us."

Now, he said, he's optimistic. "Things are starting to come together like we planned," he said. "With the hard work and dedication of this team, our efforts are starting to show. We need to continue our strong qualifying efforts and just refine our race-day set up."