Quotes from NHRA at Denver

Compiled by Ian Tocher
Photos by Ron Lewis
7/22/04

After a two-week layoff, the NHRA's best were back in action July 16-18, for the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, near Denver, CO. As usual, they told the story in their own words through team and NHRA press releases.

TOP FUEL

"These next three races will be a blessing to some and a curse to others. All the data you've collected this year is now just wasted paper. You'll really have to start over. If you had a combination that was working before, it means nothing. All the teams will have to start over. The most difficult part will be determining which of the three new variables is causing a positive or negative result. I hope we'll be in a position to take advantage of someone else's tuning nightmares, instead of someone else capitalizing on our tuning woes. I'm sure there will be plenty of frustration to go around." -- Scott Weis on the NHRA mandating a new rear tire and minimum rear tire air pressure for the nitro classes at Denver, plus reducing the nitro percentage to 85% at the next race a week later in Seattle

"More than half of our events are done with three races in a row. If the car is running good you can make up some ground, and if the car is running bad, you're in trouble. So, I like it. If you don't like it then you should go run in the IRL or another series." -- Larry Dixon on entering the third of four three-race swings in the 2004 NHRA season

"The conditions affect the cars more than the drivers because we're not racing on foot." -- Dixon again, on the thin air at Bandimere Speedway, the highest-altitude venue on the circuit

"On the last qualifying run, the car shook pretty violently when it left the starting line. I lost vision for a second, and I almost shut it off, but the tire shake cleared up and I was able to drive through it. It turned out to be a great run." -- Brandon Bernstein on the 4.677-second pass at 308.43 mph that earned him the number-one starting position

"It was bit hairy going down to that last qualifying pass to get into the field." -- Tony Schumacher, who qualified 10th, after rain eliminated both Friday qualifying sessions and a fuel leak prevented him from making an attempt in Saturday's first session

"It's a shame to give your opponent a win like that without even being able to go down the track." -- Cory MacClenathan after the front wheels of his car started wobbling while backing up from his burnout for the first round against Rhonda Hartman-Smith and pulled the steering wheel from his hand. In the process, he hit the button that deploys the parachute, causing it to fall from its pack at the back of the dragster

"I pulled the first parachute and pulled on the brake. When I did, the brake pulled all the way back and I knew it wasn't working. I hit the second parachute and it came out, but it was too late. I knew I was getting closer to the sand. About then I wished I could be like Fred Flintstone and stick my feet through the floor boards." -- Doug Herbert on ending up in the sand trap after a brake line broke during his first-round win over Mike Strasburg

"It's real depressing to lose a tight race like that." -- Dixon on his narrow loss to Schumacher in round two

"I don't know what's worse, losing this way or with a red light." -- Bernstein on falling to a holeshot by Scott Kalitta in the semis

"He started running me down about half track and that was it." -- Schumacher on losing to S. Kalitta in the final despite leaving first off the start

"This is the first win for [sponsor] Jesse (James). You know, he's used to being on top and let's just say he's given me lots of words of encouragement lately." -- S. Kalitta after going to the winner's circle himself for the first time since 1997 (he took a combined four years off since that season, but returned to regular action nearly a year ago)

"I'm glad we broke out the new tire here because you don't have much downforce coming into play at altitude. This was probably the best place we could have made the switch." -- S. Kalitta again, on the equalizing effect of Bandimere Speedway

FUNNY CAR

"Driving a Funny Car sort of takes your breath away, but at Bandimere where there isn't much air to begin with, it really knocks the wind out of you." -- Tim Wilkerson on the physical demand of racing at high altitude

"One of the oddest things about drag racing is how much we work for the little amount of actual driving we do. On Sunday night, especially if you made it all the way to the final, you're just exhausted as a driver and your crew guys are about to drop. All for four laps down the track in about six hours. That usually adds up to less than 20-seconds of racing on Sunday. It's a good thing we don't have to go any further than that, because it wipes you out." -- Phil Burkart Jr. on what he always hopes to accomplish at every event

"We changed the center of gravity on the car to try and keep the tire spin down so the car wouldn't shake. It worked but, at the same time, it created another problem. The car wants to hike up the front end, and that's not good. But we've addressed that by putting more weight on. Shake has been the problem. Getting past the starting line Christmas tree has been a problem. If we can get the car to go consistently by the tree, we can solve the other problems." -- Jerry Toliver on the handling problems that have plagued his team lately

"My big concern right now is this new Goodyear tire and how big of a curve ball it's going to throw our tune-up. The only thing I feel positive about is that we've had three different tires this year and we've been able to make each one work in a relatively short amount of time." -- Gary Scelzi before qualifying 15th, then going out in a cloud of tire smoke against Tony Pedregon in round one

"It's a very tricky race track, especially now; it always has been. It's very challenging. The altitude always presents a problem with making horsepower and making downforce, and now with shortened qualifying sessions and a new tire it made it more challenging." -- Whit Bazemore after lowering the track e.t. record to 4.842 seconds in qualifying number one

"It wasn't as good as what we wanted, but we'll take it." -- Tommy Johnson Jr. after qualifying 6th

"The post that holds the plate that holds the parachute pack sheared off." -- Scelzi explaining why his chute deployed halfway through his second qualifying attempt

"The Firebird has the chutes in a different location than on the Corvette we were running. Things happen so fast in these cars, I'm not sure if I reached up to where the parachute lever used to be or not. I hit them once and they didn't come out and by the time I hit them again and they deployed it was too late to stay out of the sand." -- Jeff Arend explaining his own parachute problem after qualifying 11th with his final attempt on Saturday

"If the sun would come out, it would really help us, because the heroes are throwing out some numbers that we really can't produce." -- Wilkerson before qualifying in the number-seven slot

"That wasn't exactly the script I wrote." -- Gary Densham after losing to Bob Gilbertson in the opening round

"There are no excuses. The weather is the same for everybody. It's not like our side of the track was hot and their side of the track was under a big umbrella." -- Bazemore after going up in smoke and losing in the first round to series newcomer Robert Schwab

"It was unfortunate, but these things happen. Different combination, different tires." -- Scelzi on his first-round loss to T. Pedregon

"I got the jump on him off the starting line but the car started to shake a little bit and I pedaled it twice. When I saw him pulling away I just lifted off the throttle. We can't seem to catch a break in the first round this season." -- Arend on his first-round loss to Johnson

"Man, that first round race was big. My job is to keep Del and Whit and those guys off of [team owner] John (Force). We had a chance to do some good and, fortunately, we did. I felt really good about that and it lasted just about an hour." -- Eric Medlen on his first-round win over Del Worsham -- but after losing to Schwab in round two

"I think the key to success here is to work with less power, [but] we couldn't pull enough power out of our Monte Carlo today." -- T. Pedregon after smoking the tires against Burkart in the second round

"I was nervous when we left the pits because the cloud cover came in over the race track. [Crew chief] Mike (Green) and the guys tuned the car to go down a hot, sunny race track. We tried to compensate for it, but that's what bit us. The car shook the tires around 150 feet into the run and I had to peddle it and that's why we got beat." -- Johnson on his semi-final loss to Burkart

"When I hit the throttle, I didn't see him at first. You usually see them at the hit of the throttle. At about 300 feet, which is a third of the way out, I thought we were in good shape. All of a sudden, my car shook (or spun) the tires." -- Cruz Pedregon on what went wrong for him in the final against Burkart

"I saw a whole lot of Cruz the first half of that race and I didn't like what I was seeing. But then we went by him at some point and the next thing I saw was the win light." -- Burkart on outlasting C. Pedregon in the final round

"You know, we learned every lap and that's what was so rewarding. We fought the track, we fought the elements, and by the end of the day we were outrunning everyone." -- Burkart again, after scoring his second event win of the year

PRO STOCK

"This is kind of the turning point of the season. Based on where you are and how you're doing, it can be tough to motivate yourself if you're not in it for the long haul. The races are back-to-back, the travel is grueling, and there are a lot of changes to contend with, from the highest corrected altitude at Denver, back down to racing at sea-level in Seattle, in less than a week." -- Bruce Allen on surviving the NHRA's western swing through Denver, Seattle, and Sonoma, CA, on successive weekends

"The air is awful thin up there, so in an effort to compensate for the bad air we gear these cars deep and stack the transmission with super low gears. From a driver's standpoint it really doesn't feel much slower, and trust me, with the deeper gear you're really occupied

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shifting and driving the racecar." -- Greg Anderson on the steps he takes to maintain performance in Denver

"We must drive differently because we can't feel when it's time to shift the car. We have to get used to the lack of acceleration because it's different than being at sea level." -- Jim Yates on the changes that Pro Stock drivers have to make at 5,280 feet ASL

"Basically, we're down 250 horsepower from our normal race conditions. That means you have to backtrack the set-up -- including the chassis configuration, four-link settings, gear ratios and weight distribution -- to what we would have run at other tracks in 1991." -- Warren Johnson on his approach to racing in Bandimere's unique climate

"We left a lot on the table down low and that really took the wind out of our sails. It takes even longer for the car to recover racing at this altitude." -- Jeg Coughlin Jr. on his first qualifying attempt that left him 14th on the ladder. He improved in the final session and started 11th on raceday

"We tested here a week and a half ago and that definitely helped." -- Anderson after earning his 10th number-one starting position this year with a track record 7.159-secs pass

"It's hard to beat a .021 light." -- Kenny Koretsky on losing to a holeshot by Kurt Johnson in round one

"We will just lick our wounds and head to Seattle." -- Coughlin Jr. after losing a close one to V. Gaines in the opening round

"Unfortunately, within 10 to 15 minutes of our pulling into the staging lanes, the skies clouded up and the track temperature went down 20 degrees. I guess Mother Nature lost my cell phone number, because she never called to warn me not to set up for a hot race track." -- K. Johnson after falling to Larry Morgan in the semis

"We've been running on tires that were too small and the engine went through too high; we weren't geared right. This thing is in-between with the gear ratio that we need. We can't really get where we need to be. We ran two thousandths quicker down the back than Greg (Anderson) and that's good." -- Morgan explaining his loss to Anderson in the final round

"We're going after wins; we're going after titles; we're going after history. You don't get a lot of chances like this so you've got to get after it when you can. I've said several times you don't ever expect to do this in a class like Pro Stock. I don't even really know why it's happened for us. We're way beyond our dreams." -- Anderson on winning his 10th race this year, with 10 still to come on the schedule

"No matter how easy it might look, it's not. I mean, they say I'm dominating and that means I have a hundredth or two on the field. That's nothing. You can lose that at the starting line every race. It's a struggle, but it's so much fun." -- Anderson again, on the challenge of staying on top of the sport's tightest class

PRO STOCK BIKE

"We made a few changes after the first round and it woke up the bike for the second pass." -- Andrew Hines after going 7.509 at 185.66 mph to qualify number one and set both ends of the track record

"Given the thin air up here in the mountains, we did pretty darn good today." -- Antron Brown after qualifying second

"On the mountain it seems to take forever for the one-two gear change, and I missed it which did cost us some elapsed time." -- Craig Treble after settling into the number-five qualifying spot

"The bikes don't run the quick numbers in the high altitude so it puts a lot on the drivers to cut good lights. You'll see a lot of matchups won on the starting-line this weekend." -- Geno Scali making an accurate prediction, as 9 of the 15 bike elimination rounds were decided by redlight starts

"That hurts when you put up a better pass, but lose because of reaction time." -- Angelle Savoie on losing to a holeshot by Treble in round two

"I wanted to cut a good light, but pushed the envelope too far. For yet another race, we had a good bike, but came up short." -- Brown on redlighting out of the semis against Shawn Gann

"I told them I'd wait as long as it took for them to get ready. I mean, you can't do nothing about a fire. I heard they were thrashing to get done and I told [NHRA officials] they could put us at the back of the pack if they wanted. He'd do the same for me, I know it. But they got there in time. Then they had trouble at the line and just reached a point where I had to put it all out of my mind and just race." -- Gann after defeating Treble in the final, on the spectacular and unusual engine fire Treble experienced in his semi-final win over a redlighting Hines

"I know if we had the money we could run with them full-time all year long." -- Gann again, on chasing points leader Hines