“We had a cylinder out a second and-a-half into the run. We had the quickest 60-foot time of the round and even with a cylinder out, our 330-foot (time) was quicker than the first round, so the car was looking to run a 4.50. We would have only needed a 4.53 to get the win. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.” — Larry Dixon on his second-round loss to Schumacher

“We could’ve had him if I’d been a little quicker (in reaction time).” — Millican after losing by five-thousandths to Baca in the second round

“For some reason, the track wasn't as good in that round. With the overcast skies, we thought it would be fine. We didn't change anything and almost thought we were on the weak side and we ended up being over aggressive.” — Lucas after losing traction in round two against Melanie Troxel

"I heard it blow up, but I didn't realize the fire was as bad as it was. I felt the parachutes hit and realized they weren't really doing as good of a job as they should have. I thought maybe only one 'chute had opened, which had happened to us earlier in the weekend. I got on the brakes and tried to stop it, but it became pretty clear that it wasn't going to stop. I figured the smartest thing would be to go ahead and go into the sand trap.” — Troxel on the engine explosion she experienced just as she crossed the finish line while defeating Baca in the semis

"We had a few little things that bugged us for the final. The injector wasn't quite right, the settings weren't right, and the idle wasn't right. Whether or not that made a difference with my red light, I don't know.” — Troxel on leaving .079 too soon and handing the win to Schumacher

“It was a tough day. Melanie was anxious to get her first win, and she was running great all day. Larry (Dixon) was tough. It was [Dixon crew chief Dick] LaHaie's last race, and they were going for broke. Brandon (Bernstein) had run a 4.4 pass. This was a tough win to get, so it's even more satisfying." — Schumacher after going 4.496 at 324.36 mph to pick up his 30th career NHRA Top Fuel victory

FUNNY CAR

"This is like a good day fishing for a drag racer." — Tony Pedregon on picking up his second event title this year

"My big concern was not letting (my crew) down because they mean so much to me. I am just numb right now because this is so different than the other three. I've never had so much pressure where everything meant so much." — Gary Scelzi, a three-time Top Fuel champ, on getting his first Funny Car title and joining Kenny Bernstein as the only drivers to win championships in both nitro classes

"We're going to make a good run, so if those guys hockey puck at all, they're going to go home, I can tell you that.” — Tim Wilkerson on starting 16th and facing Scelzi in the first round on raceday

"We went after it and it spun the tire a little bit and that's why it didn't run quicker than a .69, but it did run a 330. So, again, the rev limiter came into play and that .66 is going to be tough to beat, even if you get to Chicago or Vegas or some of these other places with [good] conditions because it just slows the cars down big time down there.” — Scelzi on trying to beat John Force’s 4.665-seconds E.T. record in the final qualifying session after running 4.696 at 330.23 to qualify number one on Friday

"I was really kind of hoping that was going to happen." — Scelzi again, on championship rival Force having to face Scelzi’s teammate Whit Bazemore in the opening round