“The biggest challenges we’ve had has been to adapt to the new 85 percent rule. We did have some data, but this weekend we’ve had to get some more useful data. We did that in that final run, and it was just a matter of adapting. It takes a quite a bit to generate the same amount of power with these rules.” -- T. Pedregon after vaulting into the 6th-place position with his final qualifying attempt

"We had a little malfunction in the lights and it backfired. It knocked the blower off, broke the hood burst panel into two pieces, and cracked the heck out of the hood. We had a ton of work to do on the motor, but even more work to do on the body. We could have thrashed it all together and limped up there, but then we would have had to do it all tonight and we would have been worn out tomorrow morning. It was better to just get all the work done, so we can be ready tomorrow." -- Burkart on the decision to sit out the last round of qualifying after suffering an engine explosion in the third round

“On Friday night we had a problem with the front tire in the staging lanes right before we were going to run so we had to go back and change tires. The new set was a little shorter and put too much weight on the front end and we smoked the tires. I was on a good pass on the first run today (Saturday) when the car dropped an intake valve and blew up and caused a lot of damage. We have a spare body but we also damaged the cabling, the computer wires, and the fuel lines. There were a lot of things we hurt that were very time consuming and we didn't want to go up there and run without being 100 percent.”
-- Jeff Arend explaining why he missed the final qualifying session, ending a 14-race qualifying streak for his team

"It's such a rare thing for us, it's almost like a little mini-victory, because we're really not used to this sort of thing.” -- Del Worsham on qualifying number one for the first time since the spring of 2001

"We probably had a small advantage over everybody else that many people don't know about. We left Reading (Pa.) and high-tailed it and tested at this great track and made about eight runs two weeks ago here. It was under hot conditions, but it was in the altitude. We were leaving Reading where we smoked the tires twice, and I looked at my dad and I thought I can't sleep, and he said he couldn't either. I asked him if he wanted to go to Vegas and he said let's go. So I got on the phone and called every truck we own and said just stop in Vegas for a day, we're going to fix this thing. Apparently our work paid off. This is a great team. We had raced several weeks in a row and everybody was tired, and when everybody else was home on vacation, our guys were out here in ninety-degree weather in Vegas. I have to believe that played a little bit into this." -- Worsham again, on the hard work that goes on behind the scenes

“It’s hard to hang your head when you lose to Force. They’re such a great team. It was a fun race because I didn’t see or hear him until right near the finish line, so I knew it had to be close.” -- Capps after suffering a narrow loss to the champ in round one

"It doesn't matter what his reaction time was. It's just really disappointing because my job is to leave before the other guy. It doesn't matter what he does.” -- Bazemore on losing in round one thanks to a holeshot by C. Pedregon

"We really like those guys, and respect them. Tim is a class act. But when we race, it's vicious.” -- Worsham after beating Wilkerson by 13 thousandths in the second round

“We think we had some ignition problems that caused us to not really have the set up we wanted.” -- C. Pedregon after losing to Gary Scelzi in round two

“There were a lot of distractions with all the functions we had planned. Something I have learned is that the more distractions we have, the more excitement there is. It almost makes it seem like you can focus even a little better, and I was able to find that tunnel vision.” -- T. Pedregon on being satisfied with his weekend, despite losing in the second round to former teammate Gary Densham

“They got this one. In Pomona, it will be on the table. We want it, and so do they, so it ought to be interesting." -- Worsham after losing to Scelzi in the semis, and on being tied for second with Scelzi heading into the final race of the season

"I can say this was my hardest championship to win. Harder than all of them. I didn't think I was going to make it. Scelzi was right there every week. It was a big fight. And then it was Baze the next week and Worsham the next. And then, all of a sudden, it was like we got magic. It just started to run and I started to jive and I started to believe. And that was the key. Retirement? I'm not retiring. I'm having too much fun." -- Force after losing the final against Scelzi, but also clinching his 13th championship just by qualifying at the Vegas event