Cruz Pedregon showed his performance last week in Concord was no flash in the pan.

Less than four days after tasting the ceremonial champagne, Pedregon’s Snap-on team rolled through the gates of the Texas Motorplex.

“We had a really short week to celebrate,” Pedregon said. “It was kinda hard because I haven’t even had time to think much about it. On one hand you want to celebrate and on the other, you want to keep it going. We have momentum. It’s kind of easy to readjust back to racing because you get right back out there and get into the thick of racing.”

Now the two-time NHRA Funny Car champion stands on the cusp of two consecutive No. 1 qualifying efforts after barnstorming to the top of the provisional Funny Car field at the NHRA O’Reilly Fall Nationals.

Pedregon recorded a 4.129 elapsed time pass at 299.26 miles per hour run during Friday’s second session. He was .04 ahead of second qualifier Jeff Arend.

“We have found consistency,” admitted Pedregon. “The car has been knocking on the door for about six or eight races. The car has been blasting out some good numbers. We just hadn’t been consistent. We figured out what not to do with the car and it’s all coming together.”

Friday’s first session left many of the leading nitro tuners scratching their head at what approach to give a 141 degree racing surface. Pedregon, who admitted last week that he’s active in the tuning decisions on his car, was right along with those struggling with a firm idea of how to attack the opening session.

“We were nervous at first. We wanted to make a nice soft run and as bad as we didn’t want to smoke the tires, it did. We pulled it back and adjusted.”

 Pedregon felt the first run on Friday was crucial to ensuring a carry-over of the momentum from the last event. He won from the No. 1 qualifying position last weekend after leading all four sessions.

“I found myself getting very disappointed when we didn’t make it down, and then I realized, it was just the first run,” Pedregon said. “I had to give myself a mental slap and realize it was just one run and we had three more. You want to go down the track every time, even if it is slow. But when you get a 140 degree track, that’s another thing.”

And according to Pedregon, they adjusted … they adjusted, and then they adjusted again.

“We kept going in the box and turning things back to the way they were. It worked. I was really nervous. I’m in the car thinking about all of these things. I had to just eventually put my driver hat on.”

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