By Josh Hachat
W
ithout question, Cruz Pedregon is his own man. The
longtime Funny Car standout does things his own way and
is not afraid to let his opinion be known, a path the two-
time world champion has worked hard to create.
Winning races wasn’t enough for Pedregon. He wanted
to own a team, something that became a reality for the veteran. It has likely
extended his career and, love him or hate him, allowed Pedregon to be him-
self. Pedregon is a distinct personality in the sport and with years of success
and 36 career wins and 76 final rounds, he is not afraid to mix it up or speak
his mind.
Of course, going at it alone can also have its difficulties, as Pedregon
struggled in recent seasons in the star-studded, multi-car Funny Car teams.
But after hiring Aaron Brooks to be crew chief in 2017 and bringing Glen
Huzar on board before this season, Pedregon has
two noted names in the sport at his disposal, and
things have started to go a different route in 2018.
Pedregon snapped a 92-race winless streak with a
victory in Charlotte, following it up with a solid semi-
final showing in Atlanta.
Not surprisingly, while he posted one strong pass
after another, Pedregon also wasn’t afraid to call out
those who had criticized the recent track conditions.
Pedregon, who is fifth all-time in NHRA Funny
Car wins, touched on that recent hot topic with Drag
Illustrated, also discussing why it was important for
him to become a team owner, how he has been able
to bounce back this season and why he feels it is im-
portant to speak his mind.
You made the transition from driver to owner se veral
years ago. Why was that an important move for you?
I’ve had basically two careers. The early part of
my career, I was a hired gun, a hired driver. I was
one of many personnel on the team. I always wanted
to own and be more of the decision-maker, and also
to try to prolong my career. I never wanted to be an
older driver without a ride, so I figured I better make
a move. So in my 30s I became a car owner and it’s
paying off. It feels great to do it on our own. It’s great for me to do it at this
level, and to be winning, still, and to do it on our terms, so to speak.
Were there moments when your confidence wavered in this approach, and
did you ever think about going back to being just a driver?
It crossed my mind early on, especially. After we won the 2008 champion-
ship, my crew chief left and so did the entire team. So here I was two years
removed from a championship and everybody’s kind of jumping ship to go
to the bigger teams. So I decided to take the bull by the horns and take a dif-
ferent approach. I ran my own program and I won races with it.
But I did hit a wall about 2015. In 2015 and 2016, I went without a
bonafide crew chief and not that I needed one, but I kind of felt the technol-
ogy in Funny Car reached a level where we were missing some key compo-
nents of the puzzle.
At the end of 2016, I hired a guy (Brooks) capable of running a car. I
didn’t want to be the guy that didn’t have time to sign autographs and didn’t
have the technology or the information from other teams. Aaron is very well
connected with Alan Johnson and the guy we buy our cylinder heads and a
lot of our technology from, so it was a good choice. 2017 was a struggle, but
the end of last year it started to pay off and six races into this year we won
our first race in four years. It’s come full circle. But I wanted to do my own
thing. Whether it was right or wrong, that’s what I wanted to do and I’m
How were you able to get things turned around? Did you have to alter your
approach any?
If you tally our years and success we’ve had individually, we stack up
favorably against these guys. We’ve approached this year methodically, but
also smart. Going down the track is our goal and it’s paid off for us. When it
came down to race day on Sunday (in Charlotte), it was really about racing
your car, not getting crazy and trying to make a hero run. We wanted to go
up there and be smart. That paid off for us.
How hard was it to adjust that approach and maybe dial back a little bit, so
to speak?
That took 30 years for me to learn. I was always the guy, ‘Let’s go show
them that low E.T.’ Take it from a guy that’s qualified No. 1 a lot of times
(61 No. 1 qualifiers in his career), nothing, I mean nothing, comes close to
winning the race on Sunday. You could be in the middle of the pack and if
you’ve got a good car, you’ll mow through that field like a hot butter knife. If
you press the issue, it might be cool for your ego, but it doesn’t do anything
to get the car prepared to do battle on Sunday.
Along those lines, there has been a lot of talk about track conditions lately,
especially after the Charlotte race. What was your reaction to that?
At the end of the day, and I live by this, it’s not the
NHRA’s job to conform to what we want. It’s our job
to conform to the racetrack they provide. That’s the
bottom line. You have to adapt to conditions and you
can’t have everything go your way. At the end of the
day, you don’t have to take big swings. You have to
have the cajones to go out there, pull the car back,
make it go down the track, and challenge your driver
to cut a good light and make it from A to B. If you can
do that consistently, you’re going to win a lot of races.
Those are the elements that keep everybody hon-
est. I want to set myself up to run a 3.90, ‘Well the
track will only hold a 3.97.’ So only a fool will say, ‘I
don’t want to run a 3.97, I want to run 3.90.’ That guy
is going to smoke the tires. The concept of slowing
the track down is old. It’s been around forever.
There’s this racetrack in Denver and it’s up in the
mile-high and since the 70s, they’ve been packing
that place in. It’s probably the highest-attended race
if you tallied the last 30 years. The Friday crowds,
Saturday crowds, Sunday crowds, standing-room
only and that place holds a lot of people. That track
was always 2-3 tenths, sometime four-tenths slower
than all the sea level tracks, so you can’t tell that
crowd up there gives a damn about 3.80s (in Funny
Car).
My point is that reason is not valid that they have to have these monster
conditions all the time because that’s what fans like. No, fans actually like
some smoke, occasionally, especially if it’s side-by-side, but get to the finish
line first.
I’ve always enjoyed the challenge that comes from running on a racetrack
that has some personality. It makes for some great racing. I say congrats to
NHRA for their track prep. I’m giving them two thumbs up. I think it’s great.
You aren’t afraid to speak your mind. Being in your third decade in the sport
and having made more than 550 Funny Car starts, how important is that
for you?
I do take heat for it, but one of the reasons I wanted to be an owner is I
get to be myself. I don’t have an owner who is going to look at me the wrong
way or threaten my job because I’m outspoken. My sponsors let me do my
thing. I’m not bound by politics. I don’t have a crew chief that’s going to
threaten to leave because I said something that threatened the crew chief
world. I say what I say, and I’m grateful that I can do that, but I’m one of
the last of Mohicans, man. What you’re getting now, buddy, it’s as authentic
as hell. I don’t know how many years I have left, but I do want to make the
sport better than I found it, and that’s why I do what I do and race the way
I race, and I’m not so caught up in being everyone’s friend in the pit area.
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Issue 133
Cruz
Q
& A Pedregon
committed to that.