"We didn't help ourselves in that final qualifying session and dropped to the bottom half of the field. In the three other passes we were consistent but need to pick up the pace if we are going to have a chance at being around in the later rounds." -- Cory McClenathan on his 10th-place starting position

“I know we can go faster if we can keep all eight candles lit.” -- Zizzo after qualifying 12th with a 4.747-seconds pass

“The tuner on that blue car doesn't usually make mistakes. You pretty much have to beat Dick; he's not going to give you a run. When the temperatures 100 degrees he's probably the last first round draw you'd want.” -- Weis after qualifying 13th, on having to face Larry Dixon and crew chief Dick LaHaie in the first round of eliminations

"We've let everybody down here lately. We've let our sponsors, owners and fans down. This team is so much better than this.

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We cannot get out of first round and when we do it's a pedaling contest. This time we broke a fuel line and it (the fuel) got inside the cockpit with me. Fuel got in my helmet and then it got in my eyes. By then I think he was way ahead, so it didn't matter anyway. The Safety Safari was awesome. They were right there, got the eyewash out and got me cleaned up and on my way. We're just better than this. We're going to have to make some changes. I'm not sure what we going to do yet. We're going to have to find a way to run this FRAM AirHog dragster on hot tracks and we just do have that right now.” -- Cory Mac after losing a tire-smoking duel against David Grubnic in round one

"I didn't even see Bernstein until we passed the 800-foot mark. Then the car smoked the tires a little bit and he came around me.” -- Herbert on his semi-final loss to Bernstein

“We have a lot of friends at Budweiser that come out and you want to perform as well as possible in front of them. They realize that this is racing and things happen, but it's just great to be able to win in St. Louis. They get to go back to their office Monday morning and say, 'Hey, Bernstein won.'" -- Bernstein on the added pressure of racing – and winning - in his sponsor’s hometown