A week after his top-end confrontation at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals with former employer John Force, Tony Pedregon said the incident "soon will be in in the rear-view mirror of all of us."
 
But in reflecting on his part of the controversy  at the NHRA's marquee event at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, the Funny Car points leader said, "I don't have any regrets."
 
Both he and his brother Cruz accused Force of losing on purpose to permit teammate and son-in-law Robert Hight into the Countdown to the Championship, knocking Cruz from the playoff field.

A week after his top-end confrontation at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals with former employer John Force, Tony Pedregon said the incident "soon will be in in the rear-view mirror of all of us."
 
But in reflecting on his part of the controversy  at the NHRA's marquee event at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, the Funny Car points leader said, "I don't have any regrets."
 
Both he and his brother Cruz accused Force of losing on purpose to permit teammate and son-in-law Robert Hight into the Countdown to the Championship, knocking Cruz from the playoff field.
 
"I said it. I know it's a little controversial. Before I let anything come out of my mouth, I knew what I'd be up against. John's got a good percentage of the NHRA audience. I was OK with that. You know me -- I've never been afraid to stick my neck out," he said. "I don't think I was out of bounds with any of my comments or any of my actions."
 
Said Pedregon, "A lot of people felt the way that I did. What really matters is that the sport has got to maintain some balance. I don't think it (allegedly helping a teammate) should ever be that blatant.
 
"I've never thrown a race in my career," he said, asserting that when he worked for Force, sometimes "I think my car was set up to lose."
 
He conceded that his brother would not have been in such a dire predicament had he won another round or two earlier in the season. After all, Cruz Pedregon entered the Indianapolis event barely in 10th place with a 12-17 elimination-round mark and eight first-round finishes.
 
But, his younger brother said, "In all those circumstances, I thought the one thing that stuck out was John racing Robert and not doing the best job of losing a race. We saw something kind of blatant." 
 
Pedregon said the shouting match that ended up costing Force a $10,000 fine for physical contact with an NHRA official "just so happened to rear its head" at the U.S. Nationals. He said he had registered the same complaints with NHRA President Tom Compton and Sr. Vice-President of Racing Operations Graham Light several times before, without what he considered a proper response. So he took his chances with the media, saying, "If they're not going to listen to you behind closed doors, the media has a way  . . . to get that attention."
 
On the other hand, he explained some of the drama by saying that, "Hey, ESPN, they want a story. They catch people when you've got that adrenaline --when you win or lose a race and you get out [of the car] -- hey, we're not the most sensible people.
 
"There's a discipline we all have to have, but if you really go back and look at  what I said and what happened, it wasn't too far out of what I commented on in the past," he said. "The difference was there was a lot at stake, it was a big race, there were a lot of implications. They kicked the story from my pit and they went to John and said, 'By the way -- Tony said this and that.' It kept escalating and escalating and we got to the end of the track and things flared up from there. It really wasn't anything I haven't brought to light before."
 
Said Pedregon, "When we all come to ours senses, I think this is something John and I will ultimately agree that we disagree on, because we're in two different places."
 
He said he can "absolutely understand John's point of view" as a multi-car team owner "and I'm sure he may have some compassion and understand where I'm coming from. We're all different. I hope that John and I will continue to have some sort of relationship. I think it's OK to disagree sometimes. After things settle down a little bit . . . we'll all look back and say it was silly to argue."
 
He said Compton asked him how he would fix the problem and if the NHRA should outlaw multi-car teams.
 
"There are always going to be multi-car teams," Pedregon said. "We've just got to focus on racing -- that's what the sport was built on -- and not allow too many of the politics. Throwing races, that just muddies things up. I'm not sure -- When Tom Compton asked me how to fix it, the first thing I told is, 'You're never going to cure it.' . . . It's hard for me to stand by and not say anything."    
 
In a telephone conversation Sunday, Pedregon also dispelled a few rumors. One falsehood, he said, is that brother and teammate Cruz Pedregon, whose bumping from Countdown contention triggered the Labor Day accusations of cheating, had parked his car and fired his employees and that crew chief Rahn Tobler is going to work for Don Schumacher Racing.
 
"People must not understand if you're under contract, you're pretty much under obligation to race," Tony Pedregon said. "I've got a feeling you're going to see Cruz and Advance Auto Parts at the remainder of the races."
 
As for Tobler's whereabouts, Pedregon said, "Rahn (Tobler) still works there (at his Brownburg, Ind., shop). I'd put money on that."
 
Pedregon laughed at the rumor, saying, "I've heard a lot of things, but that's a good one."
 
Whether Cruz purposely will provide him some help as he pursues a third championship is not an issue for Tony Pedregon.
 
"I'm going to show up at Charlotte, and I'm going to race," Tony Pedregon said. "There's not a lot of politics with my operation. So I can't speak for anything that Cruz is going to do. I'm not going to worry about anything other than what my goal is."
 
Speedway Motorsports President Marcus Smith egged on Tony Pedregon and Force with the offer of a winner-take-all $20,000 grudge race this Friday night during Carolinas Nationals qualifying.
 
Pedregon said he "can accept any challenge" but that he knew "more than likely it probably wouldn't happen." He said, "We're dealing with NHRA and I didn't see them really stepping out and changing any format. If it's something that NHRA would be willing to consider -- they could televise it and leverage it -- obviously I'd be interested in doing it. I don't know how realistic something like that would be.
 
"I've match-raced a couple of times already this year and maybe I'd do it again," Pedregon said, "if it's what the people wanted to see and John and I agreed."
 
Force has nixed the idea, just as the NHRA has been silent publicly about Cruz Pedregon's proposal for a "do-over" match-up between himself and Hight. Just the same, Tony Pedregon said Smith's offer indicated that the Charlotte-headquartered company understands marketing.
 
"When I initially was told about that," Pedregon said, "my comment was 'You guys get it.' As expected, they understand that aspect of the sport probably as good as anyone, maybe with the exception the Baders [at Norwalk, Ohio]."
 
And in the wake of challenging remarks from former rival Whit Bazemore, Pedregon said, "They ought to bring Whit back. I'd like another crack at him." The two had an argumentative 2003 championship chase, when Pedregon won the first of his two Funny Car crowns, beating Bazemore by just 140 points.
 
Bazemore suggested Tony Pedregon sell his championship trophy from 2003 and donate the money to charity. 
 
"I'm a little disappointed. I thought we had a good thing goin'," Pedregon said with a chuckle. "I think part of what Whit had to say was right. The part I think he misses is that I drove for John, and I didn't always agree with some of the decision he made. But those were his decisions, not mine.
 
"I know that's always been an issue with Whit, and he is 100 percent entitled to have an issue with it," Pedregon said. "I no longer drive for John. I drive for myself. . . . When you're a hired driver, more than likely you're under contract. Any contract that I've ever been in, it specifically says that I cannot say or do anything detrimental to the company. So if Whit's wondering why I didn't say anything then, well, guess what, Whit . . . I couldn't unless I wanted to get fired and be stripped of pretty much everything I had."   
 
Lost two weekends ago, Pedregon said, was his chance to say something: "One thing I haven't said is that Ashley did a heck of a job in winning that race."
 
As for the flap he helped instigate, he said it's behind him.
 
"If the worst thing that happens is more people are taking sides and more people are interested in what happens on the track . . .  Whether the fans are for me or against me, I'm glad they're there," he said. "I wish I hadn't made [ESPN] SportsCenter like that, but if people are tuning in, that's a good thing. . . . If I we were all robots and I never said anything, well, I'd be pretty boring. And John Force would be boring. And John Force is far from boring. 
 
"Cruz can take care of himself. John can take care of himself," Pedregon said, "At this point, my focus is ahead of me, not behind me." 

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