"The car moved off the starting line hard and about mid-track the front end made a nasty move. I got it back in the groove although it didn't spin the tires....it popped the burst panels out and banged the blower kicking the blower belt off. I was just coasting at that point and had to watch Schumacher pass me.” -- Morgan Lucas on his final-round loss to the 2004 champion

"Mission accomplished." -- Schumacher on winning his record-setting 10th race this year

FUNNY CAR

“It’s kind of neat at the two Pomona races because you have one run on Thursday and Friday, and with the cloud cover and cool conditions, it’s like having two night sessions.” -- Ron Capps on the rare four-day schedule at Pomona

"I had trouble with the parachute handles. When I hit them they just flopped all the way open and then the chutes didn't come out. This is not the place you don't want the chutes to come out because it's short and very bumpy. But it's just one of those things that happens. We looked at the chassis and it looks okay. Cruz (Pedregon) loaned us some scales. When we get all done putting it back together tomorrow we'll take it over, scale it, and make sure it's all square. We're going to have to pull out our spare body and it's a Pontiac. The old Firebird is all we have left because our other Monte Carlo is at Murf McKinney's shop being repaired. But everything will be all right. It just pisses you off. It's very aggravating to make such a nice run and then end up with such a mess.” -- Tim Wilkerson on ending up in the sand trap after his first qualifying attempt, in which he ran the second-quickest e.t. (4.764) of his career

"It actually shook like crazy, so much so that I was thinking it might not make it and I was about ready to lift and call this one off, but it hooked up, smoothed out, and just pushed me back in the seat. I was a little surprised it got through the shake, but I'm sure happy it did." -- Del Worsham on being number one after the first round of qualifying

“It was a very good way to start the weekend.” -- Tony Pedregon on the 4.779 he went in Thursday’s qualifying session

“That takes a big load of pressure off the team. You can’t believe what that does to your confidence to make a really good run on your first pass.” -- Tommy Johnson Jr. on his 4.777 on Thursday

“At this point, we’re not worried.” -- Capps after blowing the tires off in his first qualifying attempt

“When it drops a cylinder, it really changes the aerodynamics of the car. It makes it more of a challenge to drive, but these cars never really want to go nice and straight anyway. It’s something that I just have to be able to feel and adjust to. It disrupted the car a little and it hurt the performance for the time that cylinder didn’t fire.” -- T. Pedregon explaining why his car got out of the groove about half-track on his second qualifying pass

“We're not as happy as we'd like to be, but we're happy." -- Johnny Gray on winding up 16th after Friday’s qualifying session

“Sometimes, I don’t mind seeing a car out there that gets a little loose. It kind of gives you an idea of where you’re boundary is. The only way you’re going to win and qualify at the top is by being aggressive.” -- Cruz Pedregon on his approach to making qualifying attempts

"First of all, let me tell you that it's interesting running on this track at sunset. The sun is just off to the right, and very low in the sky, and when the clutch dust flies up into the cockpit of the car it becomes kind of opaque. You can't see very well, and you have to trust your instinct that you know where you are and know what you're doing. It's a lot more comfortable driving here under the lights or at midday, but we needed to get in the show and I wasn't going to back down unless I really couldn't see anything. I could see just well enough to keep my foot down, and off we went.” -- Phil Burkart on the visibility during his 4.811 at a career-best 324.44 mph second-round qualifying pass

"Our first run today gave us an idea of where we were at, and then we just leaned on it too hard for the second run. That really was what we needed to do. If we would have gone out there and gone really fast on the last run, tomorrow we would have been pretty confident that we could do it again. And I think it might have been too much for tomorrow. I didn't expect it to smoke the tires but it didn't surprise me either." -- Wilkerson on laying down first a 4.884 and then a tire-smoking 9.240 in his two Saturday qualifying passes