“I got asked what the most gratifying part of the weekend was and I’d have to say that it was breaking our own track record and having low E.T. in three of the four rounds,” Pedregon said. “In the first round we ran a 4.17 but we weren’t trying to. I didn’t care if it ran a 4.30; as long as we did not smoke the tires. We were on a three-race first round slide so this couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Pedregon, who re-set his own track speed record at Bandimere in qualifying, beat Todd Simpson, 2009 Denver winner Ron Capps, and 2002 Denver champ Del Worsham to advance to the final round. Pedregon, a two-time world champion, moves to second in points with his second win at Denver.

“This was a good race to come back and run well, and it takes a little pressure off in Sonoma and Seattle,” Pedregon said.

Bob Tasca earned a hard-fought runner-up finish, battling through three Ford-versus-Ford match-ups to reach the finals.

Tasca muscled the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car to a 4.408-second finish at 257.04 mph after the car lost traction and lurched left off the starting line. Opponent Cruz Pedregon drove away with the win on a 4.233 at 295.46.

With only a few rounds between drivers in the NHRA Mello Yello Series point standings and four races left to go before the top 10 advance to the playoffs, there’s plenty of time for teams to make big moves in the Countdown to the Championship standings before the cut.

“It just proves it, on a weekend like this, we’re playing hardball out there,” said Tasca, who leaves with the 10th-place position he nabbed in Norwalk, Ohio. “The points are so close and you have great cars close to the cut. We were going rounds, but everybody ahead of us was going rounds too. It was one of those weekends where you couldn’t blink.”

Tasca qualified 11th (4.171, 304.74) – a number that lined him up against three Ford teams. He defeated John Force, Tim Wilkerson and Robert Hight to make it to the finals.

“We went rounds after struggling in qualifying, like we did in Norwalk,” Tasca said. “That’s a trend we’ll hopefully break in Sonoma. It proves the confidence this team has that once Sunday comes along, we know what we have to do to fix it. We performed well today. I’m very proud of my guys.

“We’re poised to make a real run, to move way up the ladder these next couple of races. That’s what our goal is.”