“When there isn't a wheelie bar, you get launched back and you can't see the track because the Funny Car body is in the way," Densham said. "I'm lucky we are at Bristol, surrounded by all of the trees because they gave me a little perspective on where I was and that was the only reason I stayed in it as long as I did. I think I was riding those back tires for about 300 feet and if we were racing almost anywhere else, I wouldn't have been able to see anything and would have been forced to get out of the run a lot sooner. Luckily, I stayed it the run and we get to play on Sunday because of it." -- Gary Densham on the wild ride that placed him 14th on the qualifying list

"The car just smoked the tires immediately in that one round. Something just went very wrong in the clutch that wasn't supposed to happen and when it does that you're just kind of a sitting duck. I tried to pedal it a couple of times, but it just didn't respond. We were hoping there would be a second session so we could see if we had fixed the problem. In a way, this may have worked to our benefit, as there was no guarantee that we had actually fixed the problem.” -- Ron Capps on being granted the 16th-place starting position based on NHRA implementing a rule it used only once before, at the World Finals in 2002, in which the top 10 in points were assured a place in the field, while the rest of the 16-car roster would be filled by those not in the top 10 who qualified on ET alone

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"We just could hardly be any less lucky here, though. A lot of guys shook, a lot of guys pedaled their cars, and a lot of cars limped down there to slow times. My car just decided it was going to hike the front end when I pedaled it, and you can't do much when that happens. If I kept my foot in it, we'd probably be fixing a damaged car right now and we still wouldn't be in.” -- Phil Burkart after his lone qualifying attempt left him 17th and out of the show on Sunday

"We were fourth pair, and the pair in front of us was Cruz (Pedregon) and Force, and I saw them both go up in smoke and start pedaling it. I thought to myself, Boy, we didn't have lane choice, this could be one of those runs where you're going to have to be on your game and be ready to pedal the car. And sure enough, both Eric and I did.” -- Capps on losing a wild first-round smokefest against Eric Medlen

"I'm not much into statistics, but this one meant a lot to me. And it was against Force. I know we have had our differences in the past, but there is no one I respect more in this business than John. To beat him for my 300th round victory is just awesome.” -- Cruz Pedregon on becoming the third active driver (behind Force and brother Tony Pedregon) to reach this particular milestone. Ironically, he defeated brother Tony in the second round for his 301st round victory

“We broke a lash cap about 1.2-seconds into the run, which caused us to drop a cylinder. That sort of stuff happens to everyone, it's like a fact of life out here, but if the thing would have waited another half-second before it broke, we'd have won.” -- Del Worsham on narrowly losing in the first-round to Tony Pedregon

"Everyone's telling me that it was a good race, but I was watching him drive away. It didn't look that good to me.” -- Densham on losing to Scelzi in the opening round

"The car just came loose a little bit about 500-feet into the run. I pedaled it and stayed on it, but we came up just short. His tires came loose about 100-feet further down track and that was the difference. That extra momentum carried him through there. We needed about an extra 100 feet. If the drag strip was 1,420-feet long, we would have won.”
-- Tommy Johnson Jr. describing his second-round loss to Scelzi