NHRA Quotes and Photos from Reading

Compiled by Ian Tocher
Photos by Todd Dziadosz

10/9/04

The 20th annual Lucas Oil Nationals were postponed Sept. 18, as the remnants of Hurricane Ivan blanketed the area near Reading, PA, with downpours. The NHRA national-event roadshow returned to Maple Grove Raceway Oct. 8-10, and once more, the racers told the story of the race in their own words through NHRA and team press releases.

TOP FUEL

"(Ed) McCulloch (team tuner) and (Jim) Brissette (tuning consultant) have different views on the way things should be done, and that's good. We need two people to think differently." -- Doug Herbert on the experienced hands that steered him to his first win of the season at the previous race in Chicago

"We set two goals at the start of the season. To run in the top ten in POWERade points and win a race. I can assure all our fans that we haven't given up and still intend to find a win between now and Pomona." -- Scott Weis on his hopes for the remaining three events

"Being with a Fortune 500 company means a lot to this program." -- Andy Carrier, co-owner of Cory McClenathan's ride, on picking up FRAM, a unit of Honeywell Consumer Products Group, as their major sponsor beginning in 2005

"We finally shook things loose in that last pass." -- McClenathan on running 4.573 seconds in his final qualifying attempt to start from 7th place on Sunday

"I go into every race with the same game plan, to qualify, win the first round in front of you and to try and win the race. My goals are probably different from (crew chief) Dick LaHaie's goals right now. I'm sure he's going to try and use the last two events at Las Vegas and Pomona to sort out a combination that he feels comfortable with to compete for the championship next season." -- Larry Dixon after losing traction and losing to Rhonda Hartman-Smith in round one

"We were the first pair of cars to go down the track on Sunday and the track wasn't as good as it was in qualifying. We didn't back down the engine and clutch enough and the car shook the tires." -- Don Bender, assistant crew chief for Dixon, on what caused the problem

"We would like to have dragged the suspense out for another race or so." -- Brandon Bernstein after losing in round two to Tony Schumacher, who clinched the championship over second-place Bernstein with the victory

"Our car's performance fell off against Kalitta and he stepped up." -- Herbert on his round-two loss to Scott Kalitta