QUOTATION MARKS
NHRA quotes from Houston
Compiled by Ian Tocher
4/20/04
The NHRA made its annual national event stop at Houston Raceway Park Apr. 16-18, for the 17th annual O'Reilly Spring Nationals presented by Pennzoil. As usual, the racers told the story in their own words through NHRA and team press releases.
TOP FUEL
"It's more than just the beer wars that we've had in the past. It's the beer
wars plus five."
-- Brandon Bernstein before the race, commenting on
the level of competition in T/F this season
"I have been doing this most all of my life. I guess that's why I'm not too concerned yet. There are ebbs and flows with everything, especially racing. The way I see it, with the way our year has started, we're due for a four- or five-race winning streak." -- Scott Kalitta on his less-than-stellar results so far in '04
"We are bringing in Larry Frazier for three races to see what we are doing. Frazier is an aggressive tuner, and we are a conservative team." -- Virgil Hartman, team owner for daughter Rhonda Hartman-Smith and her husband John Smith, on their search for improved performance
"Man, it would be awesome to get our first NHRA win on our one-year anniversary with Team 104+ Performance Additives. Hopefully things will go well on Sunday and we can bring home a victory." -- Clay Millican on his hopes to reward his sponsor after qualifying 7th
"It looks like it will be a race or two before this track comes in. Sun's hot and the track is slick, not a good mix." -- Rick Henkelman, co-owner of David Baca's car, after qualifying 15th on the recently resurfaced Houston strip
"I am as happy as I have ever been in a racecar, but I would be lying if I told you that I don't want a win very badly." -- David Grubnic before qualifying 4th, then losing to teammate Scott Kalitta in round one
"This team may not have the biggest budget, but it's got the biggest heart." -- Bill Miller, team owner for Brady Kalivoda, before qualifying 11th, but falling to Larry Dixon in the opening round
"The guys on this team are coming on strong. They were awesome between the first and second round, turning this car around and readying it for the second round." -- Cory MacClenathan rebuilding his team's confidence after a very public failing at the previous race in Las Vegas
"Truth be told, we kind of struggled all weekend with tire shake. It reared its ugly head again against Dixon." -- Tony Schumacher after falling to Dixon in round two
"You come here and you get down to four cars and we had a car that was running really good, but we spun the tires and got beat." -- Dixon on his semi-final loss to Millican
"It was disappointing to lose." -- Millican stating the obvious after coming up short against Bernstein in his career-first NHRA final-round appearance
"We knew someone needed to step up and slow Schumacher down. It was fortunate to see Dixon beat him in the second round. I won't go as far as saying I was rooting for that team but I was glad to see their win light come on." -- Bernstein on how racing sometimes makes for strange bed-fellows
"When we're still racing and it's time to go into the finals, we don't have time to think about the statistics, but when you get a chance to digest it, it's pretty awesome to think we're five-for-five in the finals." -- Bernstein again, on his perfect record so far in the big-money round
FUNNY CAR
"Coil said something that really stuck in my head. He said, 'That kid's been going down that racetrack for the last eight years -- in his head. He's driven every run with you as your clutch man.'" -- John Force on crew chief Austin Coil's take on their rookie driver teammate Eric Medlen
"You're getting to play with somebody else's toys and if you break 'em, they just give you some more. That's cool but there's a responsibility that comes with that." -- Medlen on what it's like to be a driver for Team Force
"Houston has a new surface, so it's our hope that the track has been smoothed some. It was really bumpy, especially in the left lane; so much so that it was really a one-lane race track. We hope they've gotten that fixed." -- Whit Bazemore on the resurfaced Houston strip, before qualifying 11th
"I'm a little reluctant to beat my chest too hard, but it was a really nice pass for the time of day." -- Tim Wilkerson after qualifying number two with a 4.874 at 305.08 mph
"We thought lane choice would be a big deal, but it wasn't at all since the weather cooled down on Sunday." -- Ron Capps after losing by a narrow margin in the first round to Tony Pedregon
"We went down the race track and made a good run. The problem is that we drew the wrong guy." -- Tommy Johnson Jr. on having to face off against Force in round one
"It seems that more people smoked their tires in the left lane, but some people ran awfully well over there too, so you can't blame the track in this case. You can't blame anything. Our
|
|
"It was like a final round in first round, with all sorts of ramifications." -- Worsham, the current points leader, on what it meant to keep Bazemore at bay
"I over-staged on the pre-stage lights and that got my timing off a bit. There's a certain amount of 'real estate' that NHRA allows us at the starting line and I usually deep stage but with my timing off I was staged shallow. Medlen was deep staged which caused him to have the better reaction time. The numbers indicate that he beat me on a holeshot, but we did the math and in reality I left on him but with him being staged deeper than me the numbers showed otherwise." -- Cruz Pedregon explaining what went wrong in his first-round match against Medlen
"We had a problem in the warm-up before the second round and we just couldn't
get it fixed in time. I just took the car up to the line hoping that he would
make a mistake."
-- Force after going up against Jerry Toliver in round
two and not even making it all the way down the track
"We don't have enough runs with this new combination on this clutch. It never really locked up until the finish line. If it had done what we anticipated it doing, it would have been a little better race than it was." -- Gary Scelzi after losing to Worsham in the second round of eliminations
"We just had too much clutch in it." -- Tony Pedregon after losing a pedal-fest against former teammate Gary Densham in round two
"I guess the good news is that we finally had a little good luck but then it went away in the semifinals where a part in the clutch controller malfunctioned. But we moved up in points. And in this field, that's big." -- Densham on the positive outcome of his semi-final loss to Toliver
"You can't be too down when you run that well and the other guy beats you by an eyelash." -- Worsham on his semi-final loss by just .0023 seconds to Wilkerson
"Sometimes you wish you could stick your feet out and help the car go fast, like Fred Flintstone used to do." -- Toliver after watching Wilkerson drive away in the final round
"Well, at least 'The Punisher' Celica did go some rounds today, even if it wasn't me doing the driving." -- Jim Head on teammate Toliver borrowing the body from his car after Toliver damaged his primary body with an engine explosion in qualifying, then broke his back-up with a trip through the sand after his chutes didn't open in round one
"Running Jerry in the final had me nervous. He had that luck running with him all day, plus he had [tuning consultant] Alan Johnson's full attention after the second round so we knew he was capable of a big number." -- Wilkerson on the challenges he faced with Toliver in the opposing lane
"We go up and down the racetrack and had the same motor in the car all weekend, and I think that's a pretty good deal for a Top Fuel Funny Car." -- Wilkerson again, on the longevity of his parts in Houston
PRO STOCK
"They did a great job in replacing the asphalt from the 270-foot mark to the eighth mile, but it needs to be textured, because right now it's very slippery, with the little rubber that does
|
|
"I never had to look at points because it wasn't necessary last year. I knew where I was, and that was way down the list." -- Kenny Koretsky on his improved efforts this season, after qualifying for three of the first four events
"We can't leave disappointed. I ran my fastest speed (204.26 mph), and we made three good runs. It shows our team is good. We just ran into a glitch." -- Koretsky again, after missing the cut in Houston
"I short shifted the first two gears and it just knocked the wind out of our sails." -- Troy Coughlin after his third qualifying attempt; he also missed the 16-car raceday field
"I'm having a blast, an absolute blast. I keep thinking that I'm going to wake up and it's all going to be over, but right now everybody on the team's at the top of their game." -- Greg Anderson after qualifying number one and setting new track records at 6.693 and 205.72 mph
"We are still working on getting this car to go straight off of the line. If this car goes straight for the first 60-feet it should really help down track." -- Jeg Coughlin Jr. after his first-round win over Bruce Allen
"Losing lane choice hurt us because there was about a one-hundredth of a second difference between the lanes." -- Jim Yates after losing to Larry Morgan in round one by just nine-thousandths
"That would have been a great final. Jason left on me and was ahead at 60 foot but his car made a big move to the wall and he had to lift." -- Anderson on what might have been after beating his teammate and protege for the first time in a P/S final
"The car just went left and I had to shut it off. But it was tuned up to race." -- Line on the handling troubles he encountered in his career-first final round
PRO STOCK BIKE
"I was shocked at the red light." -- Fred Collis after leaving .007 too soon in the first round against Angelle Savoie
"We
have a great bike here, but it is still a relatively new piece. It is a caged
animal; we just need to keep looking for the key." --
Craig Treble after losing traction early in his opening round loss to Karen
Stoffer
ADVERTISEMENT
"I was primed to take on Geno, but I missed a shift early on in the run and
that cost us."
-- Savoie on her second-round loss to Scali
"We would have preferred to win, but getting to the finals today was a big step." -- Antron Brown after losing to Karen Stoffer in the final"Wow! I think that's the only way to describe this." -- Stoffer on her career-first P/S Bike event win
PRO MOD
"This is the most incredible honor I've ever had." -- Mike Ashley after being presented with an American flag that flew over Camp Freedom in Baghdad, in recognition of his efforts to boost U.S. troops morale by sending packages of t-shirts, handout cards, and autographed parts to a group of enlisted men and women serving in the Middle East
"Just qualifying for the field at one of these events is a hell of an accomplishment."
-- Scotty Cannon after securing the final spot in the
8-car field with a 6.199 at 230.10 mph
"For us, this serves as an interim victory." -- Ashley on qualifying number one with a 6.165 at 229.74 mph
"I don't mind getting passed by another driver on the track, but getting beat off the line and then losing with a better elapsed time really stings." -- Ed Hoover after losing to a holeshot by Zach Barklage in the semi-finals
"I didn't expect to do this good this year this fast but I'm happy we are. Our hard work has paid off." -- Barklage after falling to Ashley in his first final round appearance
"This is the kind of weekend we always strive for and everything fell perfectly
into place. I couldn't have asked for any better." --
Ashley again, reflecting on his drive to victory 
Copyright 1999-2004, Drag acing Online and Racing Net Source
