Tony Shortall got a call Thursday morning. By midnight he was in Brainerd, Minn., for the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals.

Shortall confirmed with CompetitionPlus.com that he will be helping two-time Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon with his Funny Car team this weekend in the absence of tuners Dickie Venables and Kurt Elliot.

Venables and Elliot reportedly left the team days before the event, but as of Friday morning there was no official team statement available. A call to Pedregon was not returned before this story was uploaded.

Tony Shortall got a call Thursday morning. By midnight he was in Brainerd, Minn., for the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals.

Roger Richards

Shortall confirmed with CompetitionPlus.com that he will be helping two-time Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon with his Funny Car team this weekend in the absence of tuners Dickie Venables and Kurt Elliot.

Venables and Elliot reportedly left the team days before the event, but as of Friday morning there was no official team statement available. A call to Pedregon was not returned before this story was uploaded.

“We’re going to do this for a few races and see how this goes,” Shortall said. “I will be working along with Rahn [Tobler, Cruz Pedregon crew chief] and we’ve worked together before.”

Shortall won’t be walking into the situation blindly as he will have access to the combination data Venables used for Pedregon’s car in the past.

“I spoke with Dickie for a little bit and I’m just going to take what he had and just work with that,” Shortall said. “We’re going to keep going in the same direction.”

Shortall confirmed that he will have access to Venables if the need arises. In addition, CompetitionPlus.com has learned that Dexter Tuttle will be in Brainerd serving as a consultant.

“This is strictly helping out Tony and after a couple of races, we will evaluate where we are,” Shortall concluded.

CompetitionPlus.com will have more on this story as it develops. 

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