"It didn't go as planned this weekend, but last night
we did find a major boo-boo in the control system that was
on there from the get go this year. Catching the problem
is a big deal and made a big difference. It's showing a
lot of promise, so now we need to fine-tune things.”
-- Wilkerson after losing to Eric Medlen in round one
"We experienced a very rare incident when one of the
tires began to lose air pressure and the car moved to the
center (of the track). As I approached the 1,000-foot mark,
my choice was to shut off early or cross over to the other
lane, so I had to let go.” --
T. Pedregon on his first-round loss to Bob Gilbertson
"We felt very confident we had the right set-up in
the car, but maybe the sun got on the track just a little
more than we expected and it got loose out there. We looked
at the data, and you know this run was a perfect duplicate
of what we did in the final qualifying session. A perfect
duplicate right up until we got to the spot where this run
lost traction, and Saturday afternoon's run went right on
down there. We were awfully close to making it. Close, unfortunately,
doesn't count for much." --
Worsham after losing to Gary Scelzi in round two
“You know, the track must have just gotten looser,
because we slowed it down a little bit more and it just
got a little bit fast and when it came off the concrete
it just went into tire smoke.” --
Scelzi on his semi-final loss to teammate Bazemore
"I can see now why those Top Fuel guys want that motor
behind them because it gets pretty hot." --
Bob Gilbertson on the major fire he suffered in a semi-final
win over John Force
"We broke an input shaft. Until that, I thought we
were going to win it all. I was feeling good, driving good."
-- Force on what went wrong for
him against Gilbertson
"It was a thrash to get the car fixed for the final.
We couldn't have done it without the help from our friends
on other teams who were in our pit waiting for us to get
back. Guys from both Worsham teams, Tony Pedregon's guys,
Scott Weis' team, the Carrier Boys and others all pitched
in. Ron Capps even took care of packing the chutes, this
is what makes me proud of what I do and how the drag racing
community takes care of one another."
-- Nick Boninfante, crew chief for Gilbertson, on the collective
effort to put his car into the final round
"The final round was difficult just because Bob Gilbertson
had had those problems in the semis, and in a situation
like that you almost would rather be racing John Force.
I do better as the underdog, so here we are in the final
knowing full well they had a major catastrophe over there.
Anything can happen. It's drag racing. So to lose a race
like that would have just crushed us. Personally I was hoping
they wouldn't come up, I'll be honest with you, but we waited
as long as we could and they came up.”
-- Bazemore again, referring to Gilbertson’s fire
and subsequent repair efforts
“We were a very well-disciplined team to not give
it away. We weren't the quickest, we weren't the fastest,
but we were consistent going down the race track all day
and that's what won us the race.” --
Lee Beard, crew chief for Bazemore, referring to some of
the other front runners going up in smoke and losing in
preliminary rounds
"It's huge. The place has a lot of personal feelings
for me. It's incredible to win the Gatornationals. It's
like a Pomona, an Englishtown, or even Indy. It's right
up there. It's one of the classics." --
Bazemore on winning at the track he first saw as a 10-year-old
and where he attended the Frank Hawley School to earn his
Alcohol license in 1986
PRO STOCK
“I'm more impressed with the consistency of the car
than the national record. We made four [qualifying] runs
that probably weren't more than a hundredth apart from each
other. That's how we did what we did last year. It just
feels good and it's just a great confidence builder to know
you've got a great chance of going up and making a good
run. We haven't had that feeling the first couple of races.
That's what gives me the most satisfaction. And it's not
me; it's absolutely my crew over there. I've got to give
it to them. They could've started pointing fingers and started
screaming at each other after the first couple of races,
but they didn't do that. We went home and worked, and came
back and showed we haven't forgotten how to race, I guess.”
-- Greg Anderson after anchoring
the quickest Pro Stock field in NHRA history by bettering
his own national records with an elapsed time of 6.633 seconds
at 208.23 mph
