FUNNY CAR

“They resurfaced the track last year and it has had a year of curing, which should provide some great racing.” —Tommy Johnson Jr. on improvements made to the Brainerd strip

“Brainerd has always been considered the start of the final stretch run. There are a still eight races left, but this seems like the place a team really wants to build momentum.” —Cruz Pedregon on the approaching end of the 2004 season

“If I thought it was over we’d start testing for next year this weekend. Instead, we spent this past weekend testing some stuff for the rest of this year. We’re a long way from done, and anyone who counts us out is, I think, making a mistake.” —Del Worsham on falling back in the points after early exits in all three races out west

“This is what you dream about. This is what you think about when you’re 15 and just getting started in the sport.” —Phil Burkart, Worsham’s teammate, on driving for a top-notch team and being a contender in the points chase

“The championship is what motivates me more than anything else and we’re certainly not one to give up and throw in the towel, but realistically the Force team is always the one to beat and right now they seem to be the strongest team out there. For us to challenge them for the remainder of the year we have to step up our game a little bit. We know that. It’s just the facts as they are.” —Whit Bazemore on his own problems in dealing with John Force at the head of the class

“No question about it, we want one of Don Schumacher’s Funny Cars to win the championship. If it’s not me, then I certainly don’t want another team to win it. I want Bazemore to win it. The only way I can aid in that is to knock John Force out and let two Schumacher Funny cars battle for the championship. Whit needs to do that as well. We have to beat John Force, that is the key. There are team cars involved there. We know what the rumors are and when it gets down to crunch time, John is the lead car there and he’s going to win the races when he’s got to face his teammates. And that’s a known fact.” —Gary Scelzi, Bazemore’s teammate, on the strategy it takes to go up against Force

“Our first round win is so close we can literally taste it.” —Jeff Arend on qualifying for all but one of the races he’s entered this year, but not yet making it out of the opening round of eliminations

“We were expecting somewhere between an .83 and an .85, but never low E.T. Sometimes they surprise you a little bit; they do what you don’t think they’re going to do.” —Tim Wilkerson on being qualified number one with a 4.812-second pass after the first two sessions

“I’d say we ran well. The only problem with that was that seven other cars ran better, and some of them ran great.” —Worsham on sitting 8th at the end of the first day of qualifying

“It got down there and was getting really darty on me, making some really quick moves like it was skating out of the groove and was going to do something bad. It got out there and kicked the rear out a little and started spinning and I lifted right away. On Sunday, you’d keep your foot in it and grit your teeth and hope the blower didn’t end up sitting sideways on the manifold by the time you were done. There’s not much sense in that on Friday, so you get out of it and bring the car back to the pit in one solid piece.” —Burkart on backing out of his second qualifying attempt at the top end

“At this stage of this team’s evolution, whether it’s warm or its cool —and I used to think our chances we’re better when it was cool —we can make the right adjustments.” —Tony Pedregon after qualifying 6th, on the increased consistency his team has shown as the season progressed

“I’d rather get Force in the first round than after he’s got a few runs under his belt.” —Arend on having to face number-three qualifier Force after he qualified in the 14th position

“I made a violent move back to the middle and I shut it off early. We’re going to put a little more weight on the front end; we should be ready for tomorrow.” —Scelzi on his final qualifying attempt, after qualifying 7th

“I think we’re just a couple of tweaks away from making a great run.” —C. Pedregon after qualifying 15th

“It doesn’t matter who you race, you’re going to have to run a tough car eventually, so you might as well run them early in the day.” —Ron Capps after qualifying 8th, and setting up a first-round match against Worsham