Cruz Pedregon is a two-time NHRA nitro Funny Car world champ in 1992 and 2008. He’s trying to make it three titles.

Pedregron is in position to do just that after winning the Dodge//SRT NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Pedregon defeated Ron Capps out of the Don Schumacher Racing stable in the finals.

“We qualified seventh, but J.C. (John Collins, Pederson’s crew chief) I have to say I dropped a couple of races on holeshots,” Pedregon said. “I felt like we had a better car than we came here tied for fourth in points. He went back to what he always does, and I drove well today. We had a couple of breaks with three of the top five contenders dropped out in the first round. That really put pressure on us, but at the same time we were able to answer the bell. The car was steady every run.

“To be honest with you, I might be the first modern driver to not pay attention to my reaction time. I didn’t want to see reaction times, 60-foot (times) I didn’t want to see anything. My head was down and were banging them out one at a time.”

Pedregon only clocked a 4.257-second lap at 225.03 mph, but it was enough to outlast Capps, who slowed to 6.854 seconds at 80.86 mph.

“I was wondering where Capps was and you shouldn’t do that as a driver,” Pedregon said. “Before the final, J.C. came up to me and said 'let’s go up there and push it.' He’s one of those guys like Dick LaHaie, like Rahn Tobler, very steady, those guys are steady. I knew it was going to feat or famine. I actually got on the throttle a couple of times, and I was getting ready to do some crazy stuff, but I guess J.C. hit the button and turned the car off and saved me and the car.”

Capps is in the points lead, 58 in front of Matt Hagan. Pedregron sits 83 points behind Capps. The season concludes with the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., Nov. 11-14.

“Any win is great,” said veteran crew chief Collins, who joined Pedregon’s team last December after years at DSR. “It is hard enough to win a round let alone a race. I’m just happy to be surrounded with a great group of guys.”

Pedregon is thrilled to be in striking distance of world title No. 3.

“After winning today we are back in it,” Pedregon said. “We had to keep our nose to the grindstone, and we did.”

This was Pedregon’s 38th career win and second this season to go along with his Norwalk victory. Pedregon beat Tony Jurado, Chris Morel, Bob Tasca III, and Capps in his victory march.

“We have a good car,” Pedregon said. “J.C. and the team have been plugging away. It is a five-disc car and I think there is only other car (that is five-disc). It is not a traditional high-power 8600 RPM. It is a Rahn Tobler tune-up when he worked with me back in the day. The car runs with everybody. It runs sometimes better than everybody. It is honor to win the 1,000th (NHRA) race. Congrats to NHRA for having all these races and keeping things going during all these tough times we have had in our country. I’m just glad to be a part of it.”  

In the final round, Collins acknowledged nothing was off the table for his crew.

“We were doing stuff to the car we have never done,” Collins said. “We were trying to go low ET. It was running good until we smoked the tires. It was a relief to see the win light.”

Collins worked at DSR from 2007-2020, serving as an assistant crew chief on the Funny Cars driven by Capps, Jack Beckman, and Gary Scelzi before moving over to Johnson Jr.’s Funny Car to be the crew chief.

“I expect to win every round, you can’t expect any less,” Collins said after joining Pedregon’s team last December. “I want to win every round, every race and be low qualifier every run. You have to expect the most. Whether that happens is all to be seen, but I expect that we can hit the ground running just like we did when we left DSR.”

Collins is upbeat about where CPR is at with one race to go.

“It took us a little while to get our groove, and we are excited for next year to come out of the box swinging a little harder,” Pedregon said. “We are still in the mix for the world championship. We are still there. We are still doing what we do and wherever the chips lay is what happens. We are just doing the best we can and trying to win every race we come to and qualify the best we can and try get qualifying points. Whatever happens at the end of the year happens, but it has been a pretty successful year for Cruz. We are happy and we expect to run good all the time.”

Pedregon admitted he didn’t think he would have a chance at a championship heading into Pomona.

“Pretty dim,” said Pedregon about his championship hopes entering Vegas. “Because I just didn’t feel like the breaks were coming our way. We were losing some close races and I thought it would be good if we could finish in the top five. Then, NHRA put that points and half thing in place and that’s going to keep it open-ended, which is what they wanted to create. There’s no guarantee we will finish in the top three even through we are not too far out for first.

“I think that’s a good thing for the fans because still some of their favorite drivers can go to Pomona with a shot to win the championship.”