Veteran racer takes series lead on strength of second season victory
Cruz Pedregon flexed his muscle once again in Funny Car by winning his second event of the season at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway near Houston. With the win, the 32nd of his career, he overtook the lead in Funny Car by 37 points over Matt Hagan, who suffered a first round loss.
This marks the first time Pedregon has led the Funny Car points since the end of his 2008 championship season. He also won the Funny Car world championship in 1992.
With Pedregon taking over the points lead, it’s the first time since the Charlotte fall event in 2009 that a Don Schumacher
Racing or John Force Racing team Funny Car haven’t led the points. The last person to lead the points not driving a DSR or JFR car was Cruz’s brother, Tony.
In Top Fuel, Bob Vandergriff won his first race of the season as he defeated Shawn Langdon in the finals.
With the win Vandergriff moved into the top 10 for the first time in the 2013 season and is currently eighth. Vandergriff has made the Countdown to the Championship twice in his career (2007, 2012).
Langdon moves into third in points behind Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown who both suffered rare first round losses during the event.
The Pro Stock category continues to be led by Mike Edwards who lost on a holeshot in the first round.
Event winner Jason Line moves up one position into fifth with his first win of the season.
Arana Jr. continued his dominance in Pro Stock Motorcycle with his third win in as many races to start the year.
He became just the third racer in the history of Pro Stock Motorcycle to win the first three events of the season.
He joins the late Dave Schultz and Matt Hines as the only other riders to do it.
John Hall moves into third in the championship points and will be looking for his first appearance
in the Countdown to the Championship.