Two-time NHRA Funny Car world champion Tony Pedregon’s Chevrolet Funny Car, primarily sponsored by Komatsu America Corp., was in Charlotte for the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals, Sept. 16 through 19. The team stopped by Linder’s Charlotte office so their customers and friends could meet Pedregon and get an up-close look at the car.

“Komatsu America is excited to be sponsoring Tony Pedregon’s car,” said Erik Wilde, vice president, product marketing, Komatsu America Corp. “Tony’s reputation as a world champion aligns well with Komatsu’s worldwide reputation for producing outstanding equipment.”

Pedregon and his Snap-On Tools Chevrolet was in the class of the Funny Car field all weekend long and he was able to use his No. 1 qualifying position to his advantage and secured the win over Jack Beckman in his Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger Funny Car.

In the finals Pedregon posted a winning run of 4.171 seconds at 299.13 mph to a trailing 4.212 seconds at 301.81 of Beckman. This was the first win by Pedregon since his victory at the last race of the season in Pomona in 2008.

“I’ve had some great cars in my career when I drove for guys like Larry Minor and Joe Gibbs, but I don’t think I’ve been in a better car than I had this weekend,” said an emotional Pedregon. “I can’t say enough about the team. Me, and crew chief, Danny DeGennaro, who’s a young guy in his 30s, were both kind of on the sidelines this off-season. We worked real hard to get to this point. It took us awhile to get going, and there were times when I thought, ’What the heck are we doing this for?’ but we stayed at it.”

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