Departments - Missed Races

THEY SAID IT

Pre-race quotes from Pomona

Compiled by Ian Tocher
3/19/04

The whole story of a race often can be discovered through only quotes taken from NHRA and team press releases. Here, in their own words, is the story of the 20th annual Checker Schuck's Kragen NHRA Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec Mar. 5-7, at Phoenix

TOP FUEL

"The more runs we have together, the more you will see us become a giant killer and major factor." -- Cory McClenathan before qualifying 8th, then

"We didn't get down although we weren't alone. There's a lot of great teams that couldn't get down the track today." -- Scott Weis after going up in smoke in the final qualifying round, leaving him to start 14th on raceday

"It's been a few years since I have started from the top spot. I am certainly not used to this, but with the way our car is running I might better." -- David Grubnic after qualifying number one for the first time since 1999

"It wasn't the type of weekend we were looking for." -- Clay Millican after qualifying 7th, then losing in round one to David Baca

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"I couldn't see. The windshield broke off the car. The visor broke off my helmet and you're kind of guessing as to where the finish line is at, and we ended up winning a tight race." -- Larry Dixon on his ride after one of the return lines to his car's fuel tank failed and sprayed fuel inside the cockpit for the last 300 feet of his first-round win over Scott Kalitta

"I said from the start that this is going to be one tough race for the world championship. Guys will be beating on each other all year." -- Tony Schumacher, after bowing out in the semis against Brandon Bernstein

"Once we got past the first round and I saw how we were running and how everyone else was running, I felt like we had a good chance to win this thing." -- Bernstein on his chances to defend his 2003 win at Phoenix

FUNNY CAR

"This is a very humbling sport." -- Jerry Toliver on failing to qualify just one week after winning at the season opener in Pomona, CA

"One thing I have learned since I joined Force Racing, we can win more events by intimidation than by anything else." -- Gary Densham after earning his seventh career number-one qualifying position

"That's just how the game is." -- Whit Bazemore after being bumped from the top spot by Densham in the last qualifying session

"I almost red-lighted. I caught it, but then I was late and Burkart was gone on me. My fault." -- John Force on losing to a holeshot by Phil Burkart in round one

"That's one of the bigger wins of my career." -- Burkart on taking out Force

"Of course I wanted to beat Tony but I'm just as happy to see him advancing rounds." -- Cruz Pedregon on losing to his brother and teammate in the opening round

"I'm sure there will be more of those match ups and he'll beat me a few times as well." -- Tony Pedregon referring to his brother after round one

"When you look back you think we shoulda, coulda, woulda, but to put it simply, the track was better than we expected and we weren't ready for it." -- Tim Wilkerson after losing the closest match of the first round to Del Worsham

"We made a very minor change and all of a sudden it became an animal. It went out there far enough to where it should have made it and all of a sudden it just took the tire off it." -- Gary Scelzi on going up in smoke against Burkart in the second round

"It's a round we should have won. I made a mistake on the starting line and that's that. We got beat." -- Bazemore on his second-round loss to Worsham

"The car was just too aggressive." -- Tommy Johnson Jr. after losing traction early against Eric Medlen in round two

"I feel like I let the guys down and that's what I hate." -- Medlen, after his .270 light was the beginning of a semi-final loss against T. Pedregon

"I've been driving for a lot of years, and I've learned how to block out who is in the other lane. I'm just worried about what's going on with my car and if I cross the finish line first." -- T. Pedregon on having to race former teammate Densham, then Medlen in Pedregon's championship-winning ride from a year ago

"Winning your sponsor's race is a close second to winning the POWERade championship in terms of goals." -- Worsham on driving his CSK Pontiac to the final-round win over T. Pedregon

PRO STOCK

"We were going in the right direction. We just ran out of qualifying runs." -- Kenny Koretsky on not making it into the raceday field

"We didn't do as well as we thought we would in the last session when it was warm." -- Greg Anderson after getting his 19th top qualifier in a track-record time of 6.746 at 204.82 mph

"These cars don't run very well on seven cylinders." -- Jeg Coughlin Jr. on breaking a rocker arm early in the first-round against Jim Yates

"That was all that engine had left to give. Looking at the data from the run against Kurt, we actually made a better run in the second round, but it was obviously a wounded duck." -- Warren Johnson after his loss in round two to his son, Kurt

"I could feel him next to me all the way down. I wanted to look so bad but I didn't. I just waited for a win light. I suffered for seven seconds like you're supposed to." -- K. Johnson, after his 6.835 overcame a .025 holeshot by Connolly in the final round

"Every race is a battle and a key piece in the championship. Today, the ACDelco crew won the battle, and we're about 80 points ahead of where we were last year at this time, but it's going to be tight all season." -- KJ again, on the big picture