NHRA® Team Report
NHRA Winternationals – Pomona, CA
Pre-Race Report
Cruz Pedregon is serious about success in the season ahead with a new chassis for the Snap-on Toyota and the addition of racing veteran Glen Huszar as assistant crew chief. “We ended last season getting the numbers we wanted and more consistency in our runs, and we are upping our game from that good place this year,” Cruz says. “Aaron (Brooks), the team and I finished the season with Glen helping us out in Vegas and Pomona, and we all liked what we could make happen together. It’s already working well with the 3.89 run at 330 mph we made during testing. That’s the fastest run ever for me at 1,000 ft.”
Crew Chief Aaron Brooks says, “I’ve got the first year’s learnings as a Funny Car crew chief under my belt, and I’m confident the work we did to get into the Countdown in 2017 will be paying off big in 2018. Having Glen on board brings even more experience and enthusiasm to a team that already has a great work ethic and really fast car in its favor. We maximized Spring Training, working with our newer crew members and Glen during testing, and we’re looking for it to be an exciting and competitive season.”
“Overall, it was a good test session,” Cruz says. “We really used the time to come together as a team. The last four days we focused on ‘training,’ and it paid off in the numbers we were achieving.”
On the side of Cruz’s car this week –
If you’ll check the side of Cruz’s car this week, you’ll see the name of Snap-on Nitro Franchisee Lance Merchain. Lance has been attending the races here since he was young, but he’s a rookie to his Snap-on franchise, and a “top rookie” at that. For the past seven months, he’s been calling on customers from award-winning custom car shops to traditional dealerships. He was a master tech in his former career, so it’s familiar territory to him. He says when choosing a franchise business opportunity, he wanted to “sell the best,” so he went with Snap-on, especially since he owned and used the company’s tools most of his career. When he’s not working, he’s out on his boat, but this weekend, he’ll be spending some time here at the track and having his picture made in Cruz’s pit next to the Snap-on Toyota with his name on it.