Sun, 12 Oct 2008, 04:06 PM Funny Car Final, Round 4 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan

DINWIDDIE, Va. - Results of final, round 4 eliminations in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, Third annual Virginia NHRA Nationals:

 Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed
   71 Cruz Pedregon                           5 Jack Beckman                 
E4   ****WINNER****  0.054  4.113 296.44                     0.070  7.503  88.14
 Prior rounds:
E3    (T Wilkerson ) 0.048  4.134 296.76      (R Capps     ) 0.083  4.759 277.54
E2    (T Johnson Jr) 0.057  4.096 303.30      (T Pedregon  ) 0.053  4.063 303.57
E1    (T Bartone   ) 0.078  4.026 306.53      (D Worsham   ) 0.087  4.048 304.94
 Qualified:             #1  4.041 306.88                        #7  4.059 300.06

3:58 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 74 degrees, relative humidity 50 percent, barometer 30.22 inches, adjusted altitude 1,291 feet, track temperature 102 degrees.

This is Pedregon's fourth final round at VMP, making it to the final stanza in '96, '97 and '06 without turning on the win light. This is Beckman's first final round here; he didn't get past the second round in his previous two visits. If Beckman wins, he will close to within 31 points of Tim Wilkerson in the Countdown. If Pedregon wins, he will close to within 18 points of Beckman for second place in the Countdown. No matter who wins, it's still a tight five-way race for the championship.

Beckman lost traction early and Cruz nailed down his first "Wally" in more than two years. Pedregon is only 69 points behind Tim Wilkerson and the top five are within 92 points of each other.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink