Cruz Pedregon qualified fifth in Funny Car, with Antron Brown placing fifth in Top Fuel to lead Toyota in qualifying for Sunday’s NHRA Spring Nationals at Royal Purple Raceway in suburban Houston.
Pedregon had his strongest qualifying effort of the season, earning bonus points for placing in the top three in all three passes he made during the weekend. He missed the remaining session after a problem with the car’s reverser blanket. Pedregon now has qualified in the top half of the field in four of five races this season.
“It’s a pleasure to have our Snap-on Toyota Camry respond to changes that we ask of it,” said Pedregon, who registered a 3.918-second pass on Saturday afternoon. “This is a new chassis and the car has been consistent. We improved on every run we made this weekend. Tomorrow’s race day and we just want to keep it going, but this is definitely a sign of good things to come.”
J.R. Todd, fresh off a win in Las Vegas, placed tenth, with Shawn Langdon in 11th and Del Worsham qualified 12th to round out the Camry Funny Car contingent. Each made their best pass of the weekend in Saturday’s final round. Worsham will match up with Pedregon in Sunday’s opening round in an all-Camry shootout.
In Top Fuel, Brown earned his third consecutive top-five qualifying position with a 3.740-second pass made on Friday night. He will square off with Terry McMillen in the opening round.
Doug Kalitta qualified seventh, earning three points by leading Friday’s opening session. His teammate Richie Crampton finished 10th, setting up a first-round showdown between the two Kalitta Motorsports cars.
Today’s final qualifying can be seen Sunday on FS1 from 1:00–2:00 p.m., with Sunday’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Spring Nationals eliminations to be televised live on FS1 beginning at 2:00 p.m. (all times ET).
Toyota Drivers | Toyota Houston Qualifying Results | Qual. (1st Rd. Opp.) |
Driver | Car | |
Antron Brown | Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 5/McMillen |
Doug Kalitta | Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 7/Crampton |
Richie Crampton | Kalitta Air Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 10/Kalitta |
Funny Car | Car | |
Cruz Pedregon | Snap-on Toyota Camry Funny Car | 5/Worsham |
J.R. Todd | DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car | 10/Johnson |
Shawn Langdon | Global Electronic Technology Toyota Camry FC | 11/Wilkerson |
Del Worsham | Worsham-Fink Racing Toyota Camry Funny Car | 12/Pedregon |
Toyota Session-by-Session Qualifying
Top Fuel | Q1 Time/Speed | Q2 Time/Speed |
Antron Brown | 4.922/132.93 | 3.740/324.98 |
Doug Kalitta | 3.772/320.05 (3) | 5.200/138.88 |
Richie Crampton. | 3.824/312.13 | 3.774/316.23 |
Funny Car | ||
Shawn Langdon | 4.801/180.67 | 4.874/156.61 |
Del Worsham | 4.055/305.29 | 8.627/78.86 |
J.R. Todd | 4.010/313.37 | 9.214/81.06 |
Cruz Pedregon | 3.963/299.53 (2) | No Run |
Top Fuel | Q3 Time/Speed | Q4 Time/Speed |
Antron Brown | 3.776/318.24 | 3.791/303.98 |
Doug Kalitta | 3.748/319.07 | 3.752/315.78 |
Richie Crampton. | 5.215/130.33 | 3.766/314.02 |
Funny Car | ||
J.R. Todd | 4.004/306.40 | 3.989/308.85 |
Cruz Pedregon | 3.947/299.33 (1) | 3.918/301.94 (1) |
Shawn Langdon | 4.023/311.34 | 3.994/297.94 |
Del Worsham | 4.058/301.67 | 4.017/307.51 |
(#) – Bonus Points Earned
Bold= Driver’s quickest pass during qualifying
Toyota Racing PR
