NHRA Quotes from Brainerd

Following a well-deserved break after the three-race Western Swing, the NHRA’s best were back at it Aug. 12-14, at the 24th annual Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd (MN) International Raceway. Track records were reset in all four pro categories and the points battles heated up as Doug Kalitta, Eric Medlen, Kurt Johnson, and G.T. Tonglet won in their respective classes. And as usual, the racers told the whole story through quotes contained in NHRA and team press releases.

TOP FUEL

“After qualifying ninth and seeing how we struggled in qualifying, this win is a bit of a surprise, but it’s a tribute to my Mac Tools team that we got this one.” -- Doug Kalitta after beating a tire-smoking Larry Dixon in the final round

"I know there was a massive oildown in that right lane early in the day, but we stayed over on the left side until the final. I guess by then there had been enough runs for it to clean itself up. We didn't really talk about it before the final. Rahn [Tobler, crew chief] just did his job, and it worked out for us.” -- Kalitta again, referring to Luigi Novelli’s first-round mess that plagued teams in the right lane all day through eliminations

"For some reason or another, the car didn't respond like they wanted it to.” -- Dixon expressing disappointment after going up in smoke in his 5th trip to the final round this year

"The car launched well and put the wheels up in the air. It was trying to move to the wall and I had the wheels cranked back the other way. Once it settled down, we went straight down the track.” -- Tony Schumacher on his Friday-night qualifying pass that set a new track E.T. record of 4.508 seconds at 327.27 mph

"Listen, plain and simple, there's no second round if you don't get out of the first round. That's the only business that should be on our plate at the moment." -- Schumacher on facing number-16 qualifier John Smith in round one after going an unreal 4.446 at 337.58 mph to grab his second straight pole and his sixth of the season

"That was quite a ride. [Crew chief] Jimmy Walsh has been trying a number of new components and based on that run, it appears that he's beginning to get a handle on the combination. Any time you've got a car that can run 4.5s, other teams have to take you seriously.” -- Jack Beckman after running a career-best 4.56 to qualify 8th

"It's hard on everybody to be in this situation where we don't think the car is perfect going into eliminations. More than that, it's tough because it's the same problem we've been fighting week after week.” -- Melanie Troxel after qualifying 11th, on the dropped cylinders that have plagued her car on almost every pass in the last few events