{"id":7128,"date":"2025-09-19T23:58:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T23:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=7128"},"modified":"2025-09-21T03:51:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T03:51:02","slug":"relief-in-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=7128","title":{"rendered":"Relief in Reading!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During NHRA’s 40th anniversary Reading Nationals (at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvnnia, Cruz Pedregon snapped a frustration 55-race winless streak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pedregon had an emotional event beating Blake Alexander in the final round with a run of 3.969 at 330.63 in his Snap-On Tools Dodge Hellcat. That was Pedregon’s first NHRA circuit win since 2022 and the 40th in his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pedregon reached the finals for the first time this season by defeating Bob Tasca III, points leader Austin Prock and Paul Lee, holding off Alexander at the finish line to win for the first time since the season-finale in 2022. It\u2019s been an arduous process for Pedregon to get back to this point, but he\u2019s trusted the process and the payoff was on Sunday when he won at Maple Grove Raceway for the third time in his stellar career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Cruz Pedregon<\/strong> ended a frustrating recent period in his career with his first win since the 2022 season.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The two-time world champion also moved all the way to sixth in points, delivering a classic performance he hopes to replicate again during the Countdown to the Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is very special, very special,\u201d Pedregon said. \u201cYou know, you start to doubt yourself \u2014 as an owner, as a driver \u2014 and I\u2019ve done that a lot the last couple of years. I thought, \u2018Maybe this is it.\u2019 But we took the hard road. I hired young guys who weren\u2019t already on other teams. It was like a draft.
 
\u201cWe went through the growing pains, but now I\u2019ve got a good group. They\u2019re still learning, but they\u2019re hungry and now here we are. This morning, I told the guys there are six races left, including this one. I\u2019ve won this race before and sat in the winner\u2019s circle wondering how we did it. We can do that again \u2014 just be mistake-free, be aggressive and stay the course.\u201d
 
Alexander reached the final round for the first time this season with wins against Matt Hagan, No. 1 qualifier Spencer Hyde and Ron Capps. Prock leaves Reading with a 25-point lead over Jack Beckman and a 29-point advantage over Capps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Blake Alexander<\/strong> and Spencer Hyde<\/strong> both had impressive runs at NHRA Reading. Alexander (far lane) went to the final round. Spencer qualified #1 for the first tune in his career and set low ET.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

NHRA Reading Nationals Funny Car Class Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

WIN: Cruz Pedregon \u2013 3.969 secs 330.63 mph (Career win #14)
R\/UP: Blake Alexander \u2013 4.020 secs 314.39 mph
Low ET: Spencer Hyde \u2013 3.868 secs
Top MPH: JR Todd \u2013 334.24 mph
Bump: 4.076
Entries \u2013 18 cars<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
FC class racing at Maple Grove was rather torrid – with both Ron Capps<\/strong> and Matt Hagan<\/strong> having some expensive moments.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Posted with files by NHRA Communications & Bruce Biegler
Photos by Dave DeAngelis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more Funny Car Photos from this event – link to LMLC Media Event Gallery: HERE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During NHRA’s 40th anniversary Reading Nationals (at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvnnia, Cruz Pedregon snapped a frustration 55-race winless streak. Pedregon had an emotional event beating Blake Alexander in the final round with a run of 3.969 at 330.63 in his Snap-On Tools Dodge Hellcat. That was Pedregon’s first NHRA circuit win since 2022 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[15,183,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7128"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7136,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128\/revisions\/7136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}