NHRA Quotes and Photos from Houston Compiled by Ian Tocher Photos by Jeff Burk 4/12/05

The NHRA POWERade tour made its annual stop at Houston Raceway Park Apr. 8-10, where Tony Schumacher, Robert Hight, Warren Johnson, and Karen Stoffer picked up wins at the 18th annual O'Reilly Spring Nationals. Here, in their own words, are the stories of the competitors as taken from NHRA and team press releases.

TOP FUEL

"When we were warming up for the final something started leaking and the entire clutch got soaked. The guys had to take the clutch all apart and clean it and I was watching and thinking we weren't going to make it up there in time. I mean, the bikes were running when I was getting dressed. We made it with like one minute to spare. What an effort.”
-- Schumacher revealing his final-round win wasn’t as routine as it may have appeared

"We were one of the few, if not the only, cars to get down the track solidly in three of the four (qualifying) runs. So, I'm confident that we'll go some rounds tomorrow. You never know though because drag racing can be cruel sometimes. Just when things seem to be going your way, something bad happens, but hopefully nothing bad will happen to us tomorrow." -- Doug Kalitta after qualifying 4th for raceday

"Any time you have anything new, it takes a little while to get everything set up the way you want. We've made small changes to the levers, little things like that. It's a great car. I'm more comfortable in the new car than I was in the last car already." -- Doug Herbert after qualifying 3rd, on the brand-new Murf McKinney-built dragster he debuted at Houston

"On the final pass we had a good 60-foot time, but then went the way of most in that round when we smoked the tires. We'll back it down some tomorrow so that we can go from A to B. Lane choice will be important.” -- Cory McClenathan after qualifying second by just one-thousandth behind Schumacher

“That final round was a drag race. That’s what this sport is all about.” -- Cory Mac after coming up just .041 secs short in the final against Schumacher

"We'll be ready to go for the first round. We're here to spoil the number two points guy's day." -- David “The Spoiler” Baca on his first-round pairing with Morgan Lucas