Funny Car: First Round - Pedregon Cruz's to title

Above: Robert Hight lost in the first round, which handed the Funny Car title to Cruz Pedregon, who went on to win Sunday's race.

First up Cruz Pedregon vs.Jerry Toliver, who had some interesting comments this morning. Toliver said: "I ate a burrito yesterday, slept with my Mexican girlfriend last night, had some chorizo and eggs this morning and now, I'm going to take out the Taco."...Toliver smokes em at 330...and Cruz marches on, with a 4.14...This eliminates Tony Pedregon and Jack Beckman...now John Force up against Tim Wilkerson...Wow....Wilk fouls out by two-hundreths of a second...Wilk after winning the most races all season, is out of the championship hunt. It's his first red light of the year...Oh, yeah. "Nobody loves Wilkerson more than me, but I got another car in Hight. He won the championship in the middle of the season, so I don't know about this new championship deal, but it is what it is."
Wilk: "I'm apoligized to our guys. I just stuck it in too deep. But this has been a great year."
Next up we have a who-cares matchup, when you consider the championship scenarios, between Ashley Force and Gary Densham. AForce marches on through, with nice low 4.
Another Force win as top-qualifier Mike Neff beats San Dimas' Jeff Arend.
Melanie Troxel wins a tire-smoking battle with Jim Head, whose parachutes come out early...Ron Capps beats Bob Tasca...next up is Tony Pedregon vs. Robert Hight. If Pedregon wins, his brother Cruz is the champion.
Both smoke the tires near half track, both back on and TP gets there first and Cruz is the champ and Tony could finish second. Wouldn't that be something?
"Four years ago when John gave me this opportunity and I never figured I'd have this opportunity to win a championship on the last day of the season," Hight said. "But we start next week for next year to try and get this title, because we are too good not to win a championship."
Former Dodger manager was at the track Sunday and he gave the Hight team, which is running a 50th Anniversary Dodgers car, a pep talk before the race. But Tommy, whose talks didn't help Gabrielino High School and UCLA two years ago, goes 0-3 in getting results after pep talks, as Hight comes up short as well.
"I didn't win (the championship), but I feel like I have," Tony Pedregon said. "We are a close family We grew up in this area. We know how tough its been. I'm happy. It feels good."
Any thoughts of Gary Scelzi going out as a winner, ends when he loses to teammate Jack Beckman.