Ford Mustang #72

Primary Sponsor: Castrol Syntec

Team: John Force Racing

Crew Chief: John Medlen

HOMETOWN: Chino Hills, CA

BIRTHDATE: 3/8/1965

CHILDREN: Cecily

Tony Pedregon's career success depends upon his ability to perform his assigned duties at speeds exceeding 320 miles per hour. Nevertheless, the 37-year-old Californian isn't a pilot, at least not in the traditional sense.

The 37-year-old Pedregon battles older brothers Frank and Cruz, who won the 1992 Winston Championship, Frank won the 1999 U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, and Tony is a 13-time tour winner who has finished second in points (behind Force) three of the last six years.

After reaching the finals seven times in 1996 en route to a second place finish, the youngest of the Pedregon brothers was the inaugural recipient of the Automobile Club of Southern California's "Road to the Future" award which identifies the sport's future stars (and pays a $10,000 bonus).

Even though he grew up in and around the Southern California racetracks at which his late father, Frank Pedregon Sr., raced Top Fuel dragsters, Pedregon wasn't sure he ever would have the opportunity to realize his own racing dreams.

Although he briefly drove Top Alcohol Dragsters in the early 1990s, his career turned the corner in 1993 when racing entrepreneur Larry Minor, for whom brother Cruz won his series championship, offered him a part-time ride in his independently-funded Top Fuel dragster.

Over the next two years, Pedregon won only two rounds. Yet there was something about his work behind the wheel that attracted the interest of several suitors and, in 1995, he climbed into the cockpit of a Funny Car for the first time.

Driving Minor's "Geronimo" entry in 11 national events, he flashed the form that has marked his career at Force Racing by qualifying second, third, fifth (twice) and sixth, an impressive accomplishment for a privateer.

At season's end, the Chino Hills, Calif., resident got a surprise Thanksgiving day phone call—from John Force. The 11-time Winston Champion offered him a job driving the team's new research-and-development Funny Car.

Tony's Top Fuel Ford

Doing Burnout

Taking off the line

Celebrating a victory!

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