"We kept trying to tune it to run the numbers
with the guys that were doing it. Today we should've
just gone down the track and took it one round
at a time, we would've at least made it to the
finals. We've had a hard time running on good
tracks, our forte is running on hot greasy tracks;
it's what wins championships." --
LaHaie's assistant crew chief Donnie Bender
after Dixon lost a pedaling contest to Kenny
Bernstein in round two.
 "This
is unbelievable to win Indy for the second straight
year and the third time in my career -- it's
real special. I can't say enough about this
Army team. We were bound and determined to come
here and perform well. We were coming off that
tough loss in the finals at Brainerd two weeks
ago and did not want to settle for second this
time around." -- Tony Schumacher after running
a career-best 4.498-second E.T. at 328.54 mph
to win the final round against Darrell Russell
"I've just got to stop questioning what Alan
said. He told me I'd run a 4.4 and win the race
a week ago." -- Schumacher
on the predictive powers of crew chief Alan
Johnson
FUNNY CAR
"I've driven open wheel cars, stock cars, and
drag racing cars, so I can at least relate to
all the big events that go on in Indianapolis.
The funny thing is, I think these Funny Cars
are the toughest of them all to drive. --
Eventual finalist Johnny Gray before qualifying
began
"Wow, what a thrill ride that was. It was hunting
around down there, and I was doing my best to
keep it straight and in the middle. I knew it
was on a good one, and I was just focused on
getting it there. You know, when a team works
as hard as this one, as the driver you don't
want to let them down by screwing up the best
lap they've ever had as a group, so I'm very
happy and very relieved we got it there cleanly.
That was just awesome!" --
Phil Burkart on running a career-best 4.838
at 318.47 that placed him 8th after two rounds
of qualifying
"To run that 4.81 with the sun still on the
track was one of the more impressive runs I've
ever been a part of. To go out there and lay
one down like that, right down the middle and
so smooth it seemed like it was on auto-pilot,
was one of the greatest laps of my career. I
don't get the credit for that, I was just along
for an awesome ride."
-- Burkart again, after improving to a 4.813
in the final qualifying round
Del Worsham
"We did detune it a hair from first round,
just to make sure it went down there, but there's
no way we detuned it that much. If this ends
up being something tiny and stupid, I'm going
to pull my hair out." --
Del Worsham after running 5.15 and losing to
Tony Pedregon in the semi-finals of the Budweiser
Shootout, race-within-a-race held during qualifying
at the U.S. Nat'ls for the top eight qualifiers
from the previous 12 months
"The car dropped a cylinder about half-track
and I had the wheel cocked all the way over
but I was still going left. I was looking for
John so hard that I didn't even look over the
other way to see if I had won. They told me
on the radio. I guess he turned off early and
I didn't see John until we got back to the winner's
circle. He took the check and most of the beer
but I kept the big plastic check they gave me
on TV."-- T. Pedregon
after beating his team owner and teammate John
Force in the Budweiser Shootout final
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