THEY SAID IT
NHRA Quotes from Chicago

Compiled by Ian Tocher
10/1/03

nce more, DRO scoured the press releases from the 3rd annual CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals, staged Sept. 26-28 at Route 66 Raceway, near Chicago, to bring you the story in the racers' own words.

TOP FUEL

"Our plan for this weekend is to have some fun first of all." -- T.J. Zizzo prior to his Top Fuel debut, in which he qualified 21st out of 23 entries

"It doesn't put any stress on me, I'm just the lucky guy that tries to get it from A to B." -- David Baca on Friday's rainout, leaving all pro classes with only two qualifying rounds to get in the show

"I usually need a couple of runs to get into the groove on the lights and I guess I just pushed the tree too hard on our last attempt." -- Tim Cullinan on leaving before the tree was activated for his qualifying attempt

"I feel like a kid in a candy store." -- Number-11 qualifier Paul Romine on driving for the Carrier Boyz Racing Team

"We had some engine issues in both of our runs today, so it hurt our performance quite a bit." -- Tony Schumacher after qualifying eighth with a 4.555-secs pass at 320.97 mph

"I have tried to run a 4.40 for over three years now, it's never done it and it's really starting to aggravate me." -- Crew chief Dick LaHaie after Larry Dixon qualified fourth with a 4.507-secs pass

"It was really cool to race Shirley. You know, I've been racing professionally since 1991 and this is the first time I've been in the lane opposite her, either in qualifying or

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eliminations. The only thing was when this did happen in my scenario, I won. Today, Shirley had other ideas. She beat up on us." -- Cory McClenathan after losing to Shirley Muldowney in round two

"Given our run against Doug Kalitta, I thought we might have the car to beat today, but this sport has so many peaks and valleys. I guess that was a valley." -- Schumacher after beating Kalitta with a career-best 4.464-secs run, then losing to Dixon in the semis

"They kept wanting to give it to us. So we took it. We withdrew from the luck bank three times today." -- LaHaie after Dixon won all three preliminary rounds with pedal jobs before losing in the final round to Kenny Bernstein

"Who would ever think a kid like me, who watched him race when I was 19 or 20 years old when I was just wiping tires and being a gopher, would be able to catch someone like Garlits in wins." -- Bernstein after taking his 36th career Top Fuel win, passing Don Garlits on the all- time NHRA T/F win list

"The team was so excited when we won that I was hoping nobody would jump on Brandon's back. I guess now we'll know how strong he is." -- Bernstein again, referring to the back injury his son Brandon is still recovering from after being injured at Englishtown earlier this season