"It's just a different race track and I don't know
if it's preparation or the track is just getting old and
needs a facelift, or what's really wrong. I think the track
was actually better than we thought it was and when you
pull it back too far you tend to shake the tires and smoke.
It looks like you're overpowering it. And I think that's
what we did.” -- Gary Scelzi
on making two out of four good qualifying passes to end
up 5th for raceday
"I'm not making excuses, I'm not upset other than
I lost, because that was about my average light, going in
thin. I could have rolled it in and given myself an .080
light and the car would have run a 4.82, but I wanted lane
choice against Force (who’s first-round winning ET
was 4.825). That was critical. Any time you can have any
advantage at all, whether it matters or not psychologically
against your opponent, it means something. And that's what
we were going for." -- Scelzi
explaining why his teammate got the jump on him in round
one
"Any time you put this much effort into something
and don't fulfill your minimum expectations, it's a real
disappointment. We started the season a little behind the
ball and we've been playing catch-up ever since. The biggest
problem is that the competition is so good, it's tough to
come-from-behind the pack once the season starts."
-- Gary Densham on failing to qualify
"We went to the line with the car set-up soft hoping
it would go down the track without smoking the tires like
it did in qualifying. The track was better than we thought
it would be and in retrospect we should have leaned on it
a little harder." -- Nick Boninfante,
crew chief for Bob Glibertson, on their opening-round loss
to Robert Hight
"I make about 200 runs a year and have made thousands
during my entire career. Something like that has never happened.
It all started with a failure in the fuel system that starved
the engine of fuel and created a domino effect. Thanks to
all the safety measures we have in the car, it ended up
being a small fire, but it could have been much worse.”
-- Cruz Pedregon on an engine fire
that started about 1.5 seconds into his second qualifying
pass
"I
could hear, feel, and smell Del all the way down the track.”
-- C. Pedregon on edging Worsham
for a close semi-final win
"If you lose a race, but were in it until the finish,
you've done your job. Somebody has to lose these races.
It felt like we shook the tires about a 150-foot out and
that might of slowed us down and cost us the race. It still
would have been close either way. That Force car of Robert
Hight is a strong one and was five miles an hour faster
than us at the finish line. Hats off to those guys - Robert
did a good job." -- C. Pedregon
after coming up a little short in the final against Hight
PRO STOCK
“We've been working with a new clutch combination,
and this was one of the few times we've leaned on it. Without
shaking the tires, it might have run a 6.68 or 6.69, but
we're certainly happy with where we are.” --
Warren Johnson on the 6.707-second pass that placed him
number-one in qualifying after two sessions
"We really didn't know what to expect on that last
run. We knew the conditions were good enough to run quicker,
but we had changed engines, using one that had never gone
down the racetrack. In fact, we had just made five runs
with it on the dyno before we came here. It has a completely
different power curve from our other engines, and since
we felt no one would be able to improve enough to get the
number-one spot away from us, we thought it was an ideal
opportunity to try it. We were quite surprised that it would
run that quick and fast. I guess you could say it was a
successful test.” -- W. Johnson
on going 6.696-seconds at 205.63 mph in the final qualifying
session and cementing the top spot for an NHRA record 131st
time
