A former series champion, Pedregon beat all three of his former teammates -- John Force, Eric Medlen, and final-round opponent Robert Hight -- to win his 30th career Funny Car
title. After leaving the line first in the final, his 4.740 at 325.69 mph in his Q Racing Chevy Monte Carlo was good enough to hold off Hight's charging Auto Club Ford Mustang, which finished in 4.738 at 321.81 mph.
"If I had any friends left on that team they're probably gone now," said Pedregon, who has now won three times at Atlanta Dragway, including his first career victory in 1996. "I looked at the ladder this morning and I knew it wasn't going to be an easy day. We haven't performed up to our abilities this year and believe me I was thinking about the fact we weren't even in the top 10 at the start of the day. There is no better way to make up for a slow start than to win."
Ron Capps remained in the series lead despite a first-round loss. He now leads Force by 96 points.
Connolly became the seventh different Pro Stock winner of the season with his sixth career victory and first with new crew chief Tommy Utt. He raced to a final round performance of 6.695 at 205.69 mph in his Skull Gear Chevy Cobalt to defeat Greg Stanfield, whose PiranhaZ Pontiac GTO got out of shape early in the run.
"This is the best race car I've ever had," said Connolly, who outran Jason Line, Allen Johnson and Larry Morgan to advance to his second final round of the season. "I couldn't complain about this thing at all. Tommy saved my butt three out of four races today. It's been a smooth transition, for sure. He's worked with Cagnazzi Racing and we use their motors, so he knew how to put the power together with the chassis, obviously."
Greg Anderson was upset in the first round by Stanfield (shown) and exited the race with a 53 point lead over teammate Line. With the victory, Connolly moved to ninth and runner-up Stanfield moved to sixth.
