"The car left with the front end up and kept it up for a long time. When it came down it was really hauling. It even threw the blower belt off, but we got the early numbers we needed on that run.” -- Brandon Bernstein describing his last qualifying run, the quickest of the session

"I know we must stay in the right hand lane. We have yet to get down the left. We've had two chances and smoked the tires both times.” -- Cory McClenathan on posting the quickest time in both the first and third qualifying sessions and winding up 4th for raceday

"I personally feel the inconsistency in track preparation is a major cause of the traction problem. We think we have the car prepared for the track only to come to the line and find that it is not prepared that way when we run.” -- Todd Smith, crew chief for McClenathan, after they went up in smoke – in the right lane – against David Baca in round one

"Nobody likes to win more than me and I'm not having a lot of fun right now."
-- McClenathan on his team’s recent struggles to match its early-season success

"It turned out to be a weekend I would like to soon forget and put behind me.” -- Morgan Lucas on his first-round exit after losing traction against Scott Kalitta

"I saw Larry smoke the tires so I hit the throttle again, but he was hooked up and I knew I wasn't going to catch him. Obviously, Larry Dixon is a little better at pedaling than I am, but I think if I get four or five more runs like that, I'll get the hang of it." -- Jack Beckman, in only his third Top Fuel race, on his first-ever attempt at pedaling in a first-round loss to Dixon

"It was driver error, plain and simple. I'm not making excuses by any means, but I haven't been myself all weekend being sick and all. To compound everything against Fuller, we had a short rain delay and I stayed strapped in the car in the (staging) lanes the whole time. I knew I should have gotten out and walked around. By the time we got up to the line, I felt like my right leg was falling asleep. Sure enough, when I hit the throttle, the car left hard as it always does and it threw my foot off. Obviously, I got back on it, but it was too late.” -- Schumacher explaining what went wrong against Rod Fuller in round two

"Neither of us knew who won when we crossed the finish line. Our team did an excellent job today, and the difference in reaction times lies on my shoulders. I feel bad that I let the team down." -- Bernstein on losing to a holeshot by Dixon in round two

"The car had a hole out at half track. We were ahead at that point, but you can't beat many people when you're down 1,000 horsepower.” -- Dixon after falling to S. Kalitta in the semis

FUNNY CAR

“We won first round and everyone was saying that's great. But we knew it wasn't great, we had to keep on going. And we did. We got almost the maximum amount of points and hopefully we're going to make this a dogfight all the way to the end.” -- Gary Scelzi on beating Eric Medlen on the final and taking over second place in the points chase

"Just as it crossed the line and I was about to lift, it banged pretty hard down there and flared up. The blower knocked the heck out of the hood of the car, so we can either spend all night fixing it or we can haul out the old reliable. This body only had a dozen or so runs on it, but the old one dates back to the fourth race of the year -- last year! The thing is about as durable as any body we've ever owned. I don't think we want to wear the guys out after such a long day and long night, so the older one will probably be on the car tomorrow and then we can discuss what we run on Sunday." -- Del Worsham after going 4.791 on Friday night, his second-quickest run of the season to that point