FUNNY CAR

"I've been telling people the medicine on my face is war paint. I'm ready to go and this isn't going to do anything but recharge me. The excitement of something like this gets everyone charged up. Of course we never want to blow up but that was exciting. I don't want to say that you have to have battle scars to be a Funny Car driver but many of us have a few." -- Frank Pedregon on his explosive crash at the previous race in Sonoma, CA

"Everybody had me dead and buried. But, bottom line, we made a lot of changes to our ol' race car and then I made a lot of changes to how I'm driving it." -- John Force on his resurgence over the last few races that put him 3rd in points

"The fans are kind of hard core, because they travel to Brainerd not only to see the race but to party. I imagine it's kind of like the fans used to be at the Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Formula 1 race back in the '60s and '70s, when it was a real party atmosphere." -- Whit Bazemore on the reception NHRA receives for its annual visit to Minnesota

"To have two timing malfunctions on the same day is incredibly rare, but to have both of them happen to us was enough to make me look up at the sky to see if it was falling."
-- Del Worsham after teammate Johnny Gray had a false start in the first qualifying session due to a starting tree malfunction, then he posted an obviously wrong 4.69-secs run in the second session

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"I've read some articles that describe my season as disappointing. This season has been anything but. We've entered every event, qualified 80-percent of the time, and are improving and running consistently. I would hardly call that disappointing." -- Dale Creasy Jr. before missing the 16-car cut by just .007 seconds

"During any season, you're going to face some challenges. If you'll look back at John's (Force) championships, there were challenges even in those seasons where it seemed like he wasn't event tested. Championships aren't won when everything is going as planned. They're won by those who respond well to adversity. I think this team has that kind of personality. The past three races were a test and, despite the fact that we didn't perform like we wanted, we still have the points lead and still control our own destiny. I feel very good about this week." -- Points leader Tony Pedregon before qualifying 8th

"That's not what we're capable of, by any means, but we felt that we've been a little over center on our last qualifier at the last few races. When you do that, you smoke the tires and go into Sunday with a little question mark floating over your head." -- Worsham after qualifying 9th in the last session with a 5.047-secs pass

"I didn't know it was going to be a good run, I just knew we'd run good enough to get in."
-- Gary Scelzi after taking his second number-one qualifying spot in the last three races with a 4.940 at 311.63 mph

"I didn't see him until the cylinder dropped, and then I just decided to chase him to see if he made a mistake." -- Cruz Pedregon on his first-round loss to Whit Bazemore

"I don't know what happened. It was trucking along and then all of a sudden it went boom." -- Tommy Johnson Jr. on his blower explosion in the first round against Gary Densham

"I wanted to do the Fred Flintstone thing and start motivating the car with my feet, but of course I was really just along for the ride. Gary had just a little more momentum than I did, since his motor quit just a fraction of a second after mine, and he coasted out there in front of me. It was very strange, to be rolling down the race track in two silent Funny Cars, and knowing there was nothing I could do but hope." -- Phil Burkart on his first-round loss to Scelzi after they both lost fire about half-track

"We were using this race as a test session and we've learned a lot. Having more rounds to look at for data would have helped, but we're going to keep at it. -- Scotty Cannon after losing to Tim Wilkerson in the first round