"I feel like we have the best team in the pit area. But we're struggling when the sun comes out, there's no denying that, and it's something that we've got to totally focus on and overcome." — Bazemore after going up in smoke against Wilkerson in the second round

"I'm disappointed, obviously, because we had a fast car, but now we're going to a track where we won last year, so I'm excited." — Gary Densham after losing to teammate Force in round two

"In this game, it's not always necessarily the one with the most horsepower. It's the one that can actually control and harness it. Dickie (Venables) is a first year crew chief and I

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think he's doing a better than outstanding job. It will come. There's no doubt about that." — T. Pedregon after suffering a narrow loss in the semis to Wilkerson

"Force is stretching his legs out a long way right now and that's dangerous, because once they get on a roll like that, they're tough to beat. And there was no way we were going to try to run an .85. We were going to try to run a low .90 just like we did the round before. We weren't going to chance it, especially watching the cars in front of us. Tim Wilkerson ran a 5.10 and Tony Pedregon ran a 5.20, and the dragsters were smoking the tires. Nobody was running really well in that round. The 114-degree track temperature we thought was going to be a big factor and John made us all look like monkeys, just like he did [a week earlier] in Seattle in the final when he ran a 4.85. My hat's off to him. You run like that, it's a race for second place." — Scelzi on Force extending his points lead, after going up in smoke against him in the semis

"The run Force and his team made was very impressive and they have a better handle on it than we do. We're as good as anybody else is, but we're not as good as they are." — Mike Neff, crew chief for Scelzi, conceding Force's and Coil's dominance

"Driver error, pure and simple. I wish I could blame it on someone, but we'll just take the whipping and move on. The good guys like Wilkerson are the toughest for me to get up for. I tried to amp myself up, to get ready mentally, and I just screwed it up. My guys gave me the best car and I delivered a runner-up. That's not what they're paying me for." — Force on redlighting against Wilkerson, marking just his second false start in 175 final-round appearances

"Force ran 4.85 in the semis and when we were back in the pit getting ready for the final round, I said to (crew chief) Fred (Mandoline), 'We don't have anything for that so let's just go out there and try to run our car and maybe we'll be lucky enough and Force will make a mistake.'" — Wilkerson after his 5.088 turned out to be good enough for the win

"I think everybody appreciates what it takes for a single-car team to be competitive against all of these multi-car programs. If you would have been in our pit area a half hour before the finals, I was looking at the computer, and again five minutes before the run, I was staring at it again trying to figure out if we were making the right decisions. I think everybody appreciates a driver, and a team owner that works on his own racecar. With our budget, that's the way we have to do it. We have a great team, and we ran the same motor in our Monte Carlo all weekend long. My team did a flawless job and I'm very, very proud of them." — Wilkerson on the satisfaction of beating the best, but Ö

"It's less satisfying to me to win when the other guy red lights. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I won but it's a little anti-climatic because when I won Indy I was the fastest car there, when I won Reading I was the fastest car there, and when I won Houston I was the fastest car there. That's what I come here for. I don't come here to be handed a red light. I'm grateful for our win, don't misunderstand me, but it's not near as satisfying as being the bad ass out there." — Wilkerson one last time, after securing his second victory of the 2004 season and the fifth in his Funny Car career