"On the first one, I felt the car make a move to the left and then heard someone key his microphone and yell. You can't understand what they're saying, so the rule is that nobody says anything unless they want me to lift. I heard the sound, and lifted immediately. With a cylinder out, we weren't going to improve, and there's a better chance you'll tear some stuff up, so it was the right call. On the last run, the car just wanted the center line. They'll do that sometimes, maybe getting a little light in the front end and skipping the tires along. It was hauling hard, better than anyone else early, and I had the wheel cranked left but it kept drifting until finally it got over in some marbles and lost traction. When it did that, it loaded the front tires again, and the car made a hard move to the left. That's always fun.”
-- Phil Burkart on his second day of qualifying after winding up 14th

"It blew the main fuel line that comes out of the back of the barrel valve which feeds the whole engine its fuel. It pulled the crimp apart and blew the fuel line off so all the gas just quit going to it and it quit running.” -- Mike Neff, crew chief for Scelzi, explaining what went wrong in their first-round loss to Terry Haddock

"I don't think any team out here went into the first round confident of a win with the track conditions being the way they were. We tried to soften it up and get the car to go from A to B but we just haven't made enough laps in these kind of conditions in order to get a handle on that tune-up.” -- Jeff Arend after going up in smoke against Cruz Pedregon in round one

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“Our numbers were better than his all the way to 1,000-feet, where he just barely came around us in the last few feet of race track. It was one of the wildest rounds of the year, or of any year, and everyone was smoking the tires. We nailed it, absolutely nailed the tune up, and lost. It makes me sick that these guys worked so hard in this awful heat and had to have that happen to them.” -- Burkart after losing by just a few inches to Robert Hight in round one

"It was pretty ugly. I knew something wasn't right on the burnout, but it left the line and I could see Gary. As long as I was right there with him, I had to stick with it.....then, boom, it was over.” -- Eric Medlen on the massive explosion and fireball he suffered in a first-round loss to Densham

"There was no doubt we were going to have to fight it out, I was expecting it and I was ready to run with a handful of brake to try to keep it under control. But it was loose at the hit and I was working hard to keep it straight. I only have two hands, so it was a bit much for me to steer and grab the brake too. I tried, man, I really tried, but it was tough out there. Let me make it clear that it was the weather that made it tough. There's nothing wrong with the track here, and NHRA and the Safety Safari did all they could. They gave us the best possible track we could have for the conditions, but under these conditions you're not going to get much.” -- Worsham after dropping his first-round match against Tony Bartone

"The top pulley on the supercharger broke. A big chunk came out of it and the pulley dropped off simultaneously. I was just a passenger at that point. I wasn't on the throttle for maybe a half second before things went wrong. I've been racing for 15 years and have never had that happen. I think the reason it happened is because we tighten these belts much tighter than we used too. It was kind of weak link that time and it gave way." -- C. Pedregon on the breakage that cost him the second round against Densham

"To be consistent on this type of race track is very good. We just got beat in a close race. The car ran the way we set it up, so it's responding to what we want to do." -- Dickie Venables, crew chief for Tony Pedregon, on their narrow loss to Capps in the semis

"That was a good ol' drag race right there. I didn't see him at all until the last 50 feet. I know I was ahead at half-track. I guess he just tracked us down right at the end of the race.” -- Densham on coming up just a little short in the semis against Wilkerson

"In the staging lanes, I went over to give him a hug and he had tears in his eyes before we got suited up. I was sitting in my car and thinking of my mom and if she died and what it would be like to get in the race car and drive. I was tearing up. I would have been okay losing to him. It was that kind of day." -- Capps referring to the death of final-round opponent Wilkerson’s mother on Saturday

“I knew the win was coming, I was just hoping it would get here soon." -- Capps again, on the resurgence of his team in recent weeks