John Force and cruz fighting(almost) Cruz accused John of sandbagging to move another of his cars into top 10. All this on live TV! Finger pointing and cussingThey had to be separated!
Quite a race at Indy. Matt Guidera was suspended for 1 year. Louiggi Novelli was DQ'ed for blowing an engine on his last try to get in. A guy I race with won D/SA, Then had a disagreement with the car owner and didn't show for first round of stock eliminator.
The whole John Force/Pendregon thing was one of those things that nobody is going to be able to prove either way. Besides the fact, Height was running faster than John all weekend, and probably would have taken him.
Matt Guidera did take his drug test, and passed it, but it had to be done within 24 hours, and it was taken after that deadline had gone by. Regarding Force ... it is kind of a "damned if you do and damned if you don't" situation. Hight needed the win in that round to progress into the top 10 to run for the championship and he was racing Force. The cars have computer data-logging, so now NHRA can check how the cars are set up. They also scrutinize his team pretty hard because they usually have all 4 cars in a 16 car field. If he changed the tune on the car in any way and lost, they could blame that, and say he was tampering. Tune it down ... oops, it shook, tune it up ... it goes in smoke. He kept the same tune in it from the previous run and ended up getting it out of the groove. If he was going to throw a race, that is the only way to do it cleanly. Was that intentional? I give that a 2 out of 3 chance ... Tony Ped was his old teammate, and was the same guy throwing the accusation. The only way Force could have avoided this debate would have been to win the round, and Hight was running better. It will be interesting to see if fines get handed out. No physical contact between the two, but Force was shoving the officials who kept trying to drag him away. I'd bet a slap on the wrist for Tony and two for John. Ultimately, I really wish that teams were limited to two cars per class. I am a huge fan of the Shumacher team, but even they have three FCs now.
Tony and cruz were both calling him a cheater, Tony said he was on his team for 8 years and knows he cheats, I guess he should give back his championship ring he won while he was with Force since he admitts he got it cheating, both are sore losers just like Warran Johnson, he didn't make the race or the playoffs and badmouthed the nhra, same as he does anytime Anderson(who used to be on his team) wins, as far as 2 cars per team there are ways around that, (force's wife could own a car, ashley own one,etc) just like tony and cruz, that is a 2 car team, they even used the same crew chief last race, are they cheating against the true 1 car teams? Like Force said , he was going to be criticed no matter what unless he beat Hight, I thought Dunn was a little too "Homeboy" (his dad owns a 1 car team) in his remarks also
Ultimately the NHRA has allowed this with their rules. It happens in Nascar, dirt track racing and even the local figure 8's during the state fair. It's part of racing. Tony and Cruz need to get over it. Cruz has always been a whiner but Tony has usually showed some class. He showed his true colors this weekend. I will give it to him that he's under a lot of pressure right now with Dicky leaving his team (totally justified in my opinion) and his sponsor probably leaving as well, but his mistake was confronting John and mentioning Ashley. I GUARANTEE you that he could have said anything about me (or John in this case) and it would have been shrugged off. But if you say something about my kid...I'll be all over your butt! Tony is normally well spoken, but he hurt himself in this instance with the fans as far as I am concerned. Cruz started out taking the high road, but had to jump in himself when Tony started throwing stones. Kudo's to John keeping it under control for as long as he did. And Dunn did take it personally. Guys, it's a part of racing! The race to 1 is part of this problem. If that wasn't in place this would all be a moot point. Let's face it, 10th place just can't win in the old system unless the top 9 all quit with this many races left. To Force's credit, he had both his major sponsors in the final and that's what it's all about! Oh and on a side note, I loved the line that John threw out there after he beat Cruz. He said 'God bless Cruz, God bless Tony...but God has better things to do than worry about drag racing!' Finally, someone in sports who gets it! Sorry, off my soapbox now...
Okay guys. Get your popcorn here. http://www.competitionplus.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11670&Itemid=6
Oh man, I wish that I could do that (or my buddy Tony for that matter)! "I don't like the outcome, let's race again!" What a whiner! No love lost here for the Pedregon brothers.
Tony was crying about the sport and how he is concerned about the sport when last week when he got rid of his crew chief he said his team was a busness and he had to run it like one, funny how the 2 teams that got beat, #10 and #11 going in are doing all the crying
The Pedregons are nuts, why should they get another chance. The defending series champ should have done a better job in Round 2 at Indy or in the previous 17 races and there wouldn't be an issue. Cruz lost and that's it. There are 6 races remaining, go out and play spoiler and prepare for 2010. And don't do anything to to help his brother in the race for the championship.
Here it is... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B3xZzO_74E"]YouTube - John Force Heated Arguement with Tony Pedregon Indy US Nationals 2009[/ame]
