"This was not a good day." -- Schumacher on losing a tire-smoking battle to David Grubnic in the opening round - his first opening-round loss since last May

"We were on another good pass, but the car got loose about half track. These cars will humble you. You think you have the tune-up on a string, and then it kicks the tires loose.”
-- Brandon Bernstein after losing to Weis in round two

FUNNY CAR

"Arend's crew chief Paul Smith is pretty crafty and that car ran a 4.90 in the semifinal and I know he rolled it in against Cruz (Pedregon), so I know he probably really ran an .85. We knew they could run an .85. so, if we had any hiccup at all or if I had a bobble on the starting line or did anything wrong, it was their deal. When those guys get on a roll like that sometimes it just goes their way. Yeah, they don't make the steam we do, but when you've got that horseshoe riding with you sometimes you don't need the power. And sometimes, as this track showed today, power was an enemy.” -- Gary Scelzi after beating Jeff Arend in the final to earn his 30th career win, his fifth in Funny Car, and his first of the season

"(Crew Chief) Mike Neff, a/k/a Zippy, was so focused today. Normally one of our guys gets the sheets that show incremental times and reaction times, etc. We look at those things to see if somebody's running quick in a certain area, so maybe we can run quick in that area. We weren't getting those sheets today and I told Mike I'd like to see those. He said I don't want to see them. He said I'm racing the race track today, I don't care who's parked next to me. I'm going to run that thing as hard as I can, just like we were racing Force in the final round every run.” -- Scelzi again, on his team’s strategy at Bristol

“The car was consistent, my lights were consistent, and overall it was a great day. Scelzi really strapped one on us there in the final. We were just looking to go to the finish line and hoped he’d make a mistake, but he made a spectacular run.” -- Arend after coming up short in his first final round appearance since winning at Reading, PA, in 1996