"It has been a tough year, especially the last half." -- Whit Bazemore on slipping to 4th overall after having enjoyed a mid-season points lead

“You’re only as good as your last run. You have to prove yourself each week. No matter if you’re John Force or someone at their first race, you have to qualify to win the race. That makes it exciting for the racers and fans. You have to be on your game every race and every run. There are no guarantees in drag racing.” -- Ron Capps on the need to adapt to each track as it comes up in the schedule

“We are pleased with the car's performance since Norm (Grimes) took over as crew chief. But when you struggle like we were, you can never turn it around fast enough.” -- Jerry Toliver on his hopes to end the season on a high note

"I'm signed up to drive five more years. After that, who knows? As long as I can still do the job, I want to drive the car. That's what's fun for me and it's not like you have to stay in the car for hours like in NASCAR. If I drove in NASCAR, they'd have to make rest stops. Over here, you've just got to drive for five seconds." -- John Force dispelling any notion he might be ready to retire any time soon

“Having the fortune of running so good on our first run made it possible to go out and look stupid in the evening, although we had a chance to be number one. I think if we would have just left it alone and took it up there, it probably would have been pretty fast. But it's too late now. It's always easy to tune her afterwards.” -- Wilkerson on going up in smoke in his second qualifying attempt

"It was hunting for the center line, and I knew it, but I had the wheel cranked all the way over and it wouldn't come back. At that point, you have to make the choice to lift, or hope to get it to the finish line before it crosses over. I knew it was going to be close, and in hindsight you know you should have lifted, but I thought it just might squeeze through there before I got over on the line. Instead we hit the block and got no time at all.” -- Burkart describing his first qualifying attempt

“These cars are so even, it’s just a matter of who gets it together the best at 11:30 in the morning. That’s just the way it is in Funny Car these days. It used to be where first round was a little easier, but today, everyone is tough and it really doesn’t matter where you qualify.” -- C. Pedregon on his chances after starting from the 13th qualifying position

“Today just shows you how tough this Funny Car class really is. We made three runs at 4.82 and ended up 10th and we get John Force.” -- Capps agreeing with Pedregon’s assessment of the Fuel Coupe ranks

"That was close. We've been testing pieces and parts for 2005, which will benefit the entire Don Schumacher Racing organization, and these are the chances you take when you are also trying to qualify for the event." -- Johnny Gray after breaking into the field at 11th with his last qualifying attempt.

“We have a new Goodyear tire and a new chassis here this weekend and a lot of things happened that we didn’t expect. I can’t say I wasn’t a little bit nervous heading into that last run, but I was confident that we’d make it into the show.” -- Tommy Johnson Jr. after securing the 12th position in his last qualifying opportunity