Indianapolis Diary

Day Two

By Susan Wade
8/28/03

DAY TWO, ENTRY ONE

CLERMONT, Ind. -- If a genie from a Castrol Syntec bottle granted Tony Pedregon three wishes for the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, they likely would be (1) A Funny Car victory, (2) The $100,000 winner's share of the Budweiser Shootout and (3) Everybody shutting up about what he hasn't accomplished.

Pedregon has driven his John Force-owned Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang to six victories, six No. 1 qualifying positions and seven quick times of the event through the previous 16 races. He has led the Funny Car standings virtually all season. The 38-year-old from Chino Hills, Calif., has won 25 races, more than any other driver besides Force, and finished second in points four times in eight years.

But he hasn't won or been quickest qualifier in the last five races, not since June 15 at Columbus, Ohio. He hasn't won at Indianapolis, either in the U.S. Nationals eliminations or the Budweiser Shootout. He's lagging behind brothers Cruz and Frank at this event. And he said it's about time he fixed that, before folks start framing his outstanding career with the things he hasn't accomplished.

It's true that Cruz, the 1992 series champion, is a three-time winner at Indianapolis (1992, '94, '95). And that Frank has scored a double on the Indianapolis Raceway Park quarter-mile, winning the race in 1999 and the Shootout in 2001. And, of course, Force has won the event four times in the last 10 years and captured the Shootout five times.

Tony Pedregon even has one esoteric stat hanging over his head: He has gone to the final round at Indianapolis in either the Budweiser Shootout or the U.S. Nationals in every odd-number year since 1997 but has yet to win either event. "Right or wrong, it's a reality that you're measured by winning championships and by winning the U.S. Nationals," Tony Pedregon said. "Even if you struggle in every other race, winning Indy seems to make up for it. This is something that goes on your credentials for the rest of your career and life."

After discovering what made his performance flag in the recent Western Swing through Denver, Seattle and Sonoma -- where he began his late-season surge in 2002 -- Pedregon said he's ready to regain his winning form. "I'm a very optimistic person," he said. "I believe you can learn from adversity, and what you learn makes you better when you have next opportunity." That chance is here this weekend. For the first time in his career, Pedregon comes into IRP as the Funny Car points leader.

"As a team, we control our own destiny," Pedregon said. "Because of its history and tradition, Indy is the biggest race of the year but, in terms of the championship, it's just

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another event. That's how we'll treat it. We're not going to change our strategy for one race.

"We had an exceptional first half of the year, and our goals haven't changed," he said. "We lost in the first round three races in a row and we're trying to recover. But we're not discouraged, because at the same time last year, we were probably fourth or fifth, and a lot of people weren't counting on us. We know we're capable of doing it; we've stuck together. It has been a good team effort with a good crew making the right calls. On the Western Swing, we just encountered some problems in the car -- clutch management system -- so we pulled out our car from last year, which we never seemed to have a problem with, and we ran it at Brainerd and set close to quick time and made it to the semifinals. We've made some progress since our little stumble. At this stage, as bad as we've performed over the last few races, we're still in the lead. So that means things can just get better."

As for the Budweiser Shootout, in which he has been runner-up to Ron Capps (1999) and Kenji Okazaki (1997), Pedregon said, "I swear, if I ever get lucky enough to win, I may not show up on Monday. I'd be so drunk."

He doesn't have time for hangovers.

"We're not just looking at Bazemore," he said, referring to Whit Bazemore, who's just 61 points back in second place. "John's in our rear-view mirror."