Cruz Pedregon cannot help it. He gets to meet all the cool people. 

Last month he met NFL Defensive Lineman Danielle Hunter and members of the Minnesota Vikings when he was invited to visit the team's preseason training camp. He's also crossed paths with professional wrestler Bill Goldberg and ATL Rapper Killer Mike. He's also spent time with iconic sports talk show icon Jim Rome and boxing champion Larry Holmes. Oh yeah, and there was the time he met the entire Las Vegas Raiders organization.  

But of them all, one stands out amongst them all. 

Today, Pedregon visited the Pentagon in Washington, DC, as a guest of Brigadier General Max Stitzer, an officer the two-time champion met back when they did team events with the military. 

One of the more interesting interactions took place in 2014 when Pedregon and members of the March Air Reserve base orchestrated a 'Crew Swap' to give each other a day-in-the-life experience; where the race team toured March ARB, and a dozen service members visited the race crew at the NHRA Winternationals. 

"It's a great connection and it's all been through Snap On," Pedregon said. "Not very many people get to get invited to the Pentagon and to see the things we saw. So it was a very big honor for us to be the first drag race team.

"And for all of us, citizens, we're grateful that the men and women that have served our country and sacrificed all they have for us to be able to do what we do and live in this great country of ours."

The visit came on Pedregon's birthday and a visit to a Memorial left him emotional. 

"It was very emotional when we went into the 9/11 part of it and saw the Memorial and the men and women that were lost from that 9/11 tragic event," Pedregon said. "But we walked through most of that. It was about a three hour tour. We had a couple other people that were on the tour with us, but General Max was gracious enough, he was basically our tour guide the whole way."

The complexities of the nation's command central got Pedregon's attention. 

"It was surreal for me just to walk through those different offices and the different levels of the military, all the way up to the top offices, where some of the big decisions are made and some of the top military people that made it all work, the Navy, the Army, the Marines, that's where it all happens right in that building there," Pedregon explained.  

Having a relationship with such a high ranking military official who appreciates the intesity of drag racing is as good as it gets, at least this is how Pedregon sees it. 

"He's a big fan of NHRA, but I'm grateful to call him a friend as well," Pedregon said. "We've stayed in contact all these years. And so I just want to reach out and thank him for his generosity."