THEY SAID IT

NHRA Pre-race Quotes for Gainesville

Compiled by Ian Tocher
3/17/04

The NHRA's finest are getting together Mar. 19-21, at Gainesville (FL) Raceway to contest the third race of the 2004 season. Here are just a few of their thoughts about the upcoming 35th Annual Mac Tools Gatornationals, as told through NHRA and team press releases and interviews.

TOP FUEL

"It takes a great team and some luck. We've not been lucky enough to win, but hopefully that means that luck will be on our side if we make the finals in Gainesville. We're more than ready for a win now." -- Doug Kalitta on going to the final rounds at both races held so far this year, but coming up short both times

"Times have changed and we have to change with the times. It takes time to sort things out. It's really hard to keep a team up for as long as they have been. Whenthings start going the other way, it starts crumbling real quick. When you're not winning races, that really tells you what the team is all about." -- Dick LaHaie on the challenge of keeping the crew on Larry Dixon's dragster motivated after winning back-to-back NHRA POWERade T/F championships

"The competition is heating up big time, all the teams are playing hardball, and there are going to be at least six of us really fighting hard for the championship, I'd predict. These are serious shark-infested waters. Fins everywhere." -- Brandon Bernstein on the level of competition in T/F this season

ADVERTISEMENT

"We have to go down to Gainesville and qualify well, then go after the win. Sounds real simple, right? With the quality of the Top Fuel class this year, it's far from that. It's gong to be a war all season long." -- Tony Schumacher agreeing with Bernstein's assessment

"The team and I are driving straight through with only quick stops for beef jerky, donuts, and coffee." -- T.J. Zizzo on the long drive he faces from Lincolnshire, IL, to attend his first of six scheduled NHRA T/F appearances this year

"I'm pleased with the horsepower it's making, but I'm not pleased with the application of the power to the racetrack. That's the clutch area, and I'm not pleased with what's been happening there." -- Ed McCulloch, crew chief for Doug Herbert, on the root of their disappointing results so far this year

"I don't really care about the 500th round. We don't get any extra points from POWERade and it's not the most rounds in the history of drag racing. I'm focused on qualifying at Gainesville, then hopefully getting to round No. 503 that Sunday." -- Dixon, who needs just one more elimination round victory to reach the five-century mark

FUNNY CAR

"This barrier is probably going to be broken this year and Gainesville is the first good track with good air that we race on where it could happen. I think it's going to take good conditions, but I don't think it will take perfect conditions." -- Whit Bazemore on the likelihood of a Fuel Coupe exceeding 330 mph this coming weekend

"From what I've heard it's the smoothest race track that's ever been built. That's what everybody's been saying." -- Gary Scelzi on the recently repaved Gainesville racing surface

"I've been driving to the races since I was a teenager so why stop now? It's part of this lifestyle, really. There are a lot of times I'd like to hop on a plane and be there in a couple of hours, and I do fly to some races as the season goes on. But I usually find myself behind the wheel crossing the same Interstates we've been running on since the early 1990s. This time it's I-10 all the way, from California to Florida. After Gainesville, we turn around and drive all the way back to Las Vegas for the next race. Give us a couple of elephants and we'd make up a pretty good circus." -- Del Worsham on driving his motorhome cross-country to most events on the NHRA tour