cruz pedregon–brainerd advance

NHRA® Team Report

NHRA Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals – Brainerd

Pre-Race Report

Cruz Pedregon and team are buckling down for Brainerd, still seventh in the NHRA Funny Car standings and honing a strategy to capitalize on the new Snap-on® Dodge® SRT® Hellcat®.

“I had a great conversation with the team after Topeka about our plans for Brainerd,” Cruz says. “We had one of the best cars there last year, so we’re going back to our notes and looking at everything that got us to the finals in 2021. We’ve definitely dropped off a bit here at this point in the season, but this is a new car and it’s going to take some time to get the bugs worked out. It has some differences from the previous car, like even the seatbelts are updated. But, overall it’s a good learning curve for us and we’ll get things sorted out and be ready for the countdown.”

On the side of Cruz’s car this week is the name of Snap-on Nitro Franchisee Mark Hokanson. Mark will be here at the track Sunday and says after Funny Car, he really enjoys watching Pro Stock cars. When he’s not in his mobile store calling on local auto shops, he says you’ll find him water skiing.

If you’re one of Mark’s customers from the area or a professional who makes and fixes things, Cruz’s primary sponsor, Snap-on, is asking those in essential businesses to share your stories at makersandfixers.com.