"It's a downer. We had a package that would have beaten all but a few cars out of the 16 in the field. We had a fuel system malfunction and had we won the round, we could have fixed that and made an adjustment and run low 4.50s again. We just got beat. Like I always say, there's a million ways to lose a drag race and only one way to win." -- Larry Dixon after narrowly losing to Grubnic in round one

"While everybody used to think that Pro Stock was the closest and toughest class, I, in my personal opinion, think that Top Fuel has assumed that role by far. It's tougher than Pro Stock and Funny Car or any of them. It brings it down to a driver's game as long as your car can run the big numbers.” -- Cory Mac after losing to world champ Schumacher in round two

"They just had a faster car. When you get beat by a good run, all you can do is go over and shake their hands and tell them they did a good job.” -- Herbert on losing to Morgan Lucas in the second round

"That's not how it was supposed to go." -- S. Kalitta on losing traction against Brandon Bernstein in round two

“It was running pretty good in the final round, but out of the corner of my eye, I could see Tony was about a half-a-car length in front of me. Then our car made a nasty move to the right and at that point, I clicked it off early, deciding to rather be safe than sorry.” -- Lucas on his final-round loss to Schumacher

"I guess there are certain tracks that some of us like. We seem to be pretty comfortable at Firebird." -- Schumacher after earning his third win in Phoenix - the most by any driver in the Top Fuel category

"I feel a little sorry for Morgan. I know what that's like. I went to nine finals before I won so I know you start thinking things like, 'What do I need to do to win one of these things?' He'll get his. That's a great car and he's a good driver." -- Schumacher again, on his opponent going to his third final, but so far coming up short each time

FUNNY CAR

"There's no excuse, I'm paid to drive this car and I should be able to figure out where the track is even if they turn the lights off. We were on a big run, and it got away. Maybe I need to eat more carrots." -- Phil Burkart on drifting out of the groove in his second qualifying run after having trouble seeing in the marginal lighting conditions