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“I always listen to the engine before
a run and I knew something wasn’t right.
Before I knew it the staging lights were on
and I was distracted. Then it became a driver’s
race. The throttle was touchy and the car was
real loose. I noticed Burkart was having the
same problems so I just kept at it. We got close
at one time but if I had it to do all over again
I would’ve done the exact same thing. It
was a wild ride but you have to keep trying
to get the car to hook back up with the track,
especially on race day and it just wasn’t
going to do it.” --
C. Pedregon on his view from the left lane against
Burkart
“We’re pretty disappointed. We were
loaded up for John but had a clutch problem.
We beat him at Pomona. He beat us here.”
-- Densham after losing
to teammate John Force in round two
“I wasn’t trying to saw the tree
down, and I wasn’t guessing. My foot just
thought it was time to go.” --
Burkart again, on throwing away his chances
with a redlight against Force in the semis
“There’s no way tune-up-wise that
the car should have done that. There’s
something mechanically wrong there. We have
to find it. (Crew chief) Lee Beard is somewhat
beside himself that we have a gremlin like that,
that basically gave this race away.” --
Bazemore on boiling the hides immediately upon
launching in the final round against Force
“The throttle response on our engine is
very, very good. Sometimes when he (Bazemore)
rolls up there to do a burnout it’s hard
for him to do a burnout because the thing’s
so snappy on the throttle. I’m sure that
has attributed to smoking the tires instantly
like that. We may have to find a happy medium
on the throttle response versus smoking the
tires. I’ve got my work cut out for me.”
-- Beard on what went
wrong in the final round
“[NASCAR driver] Rusty Wallace told me
I was a weak dog the other day, and that I needed
to just go out there and win, just get it done.
He did it a few weeks ago in Martinsville [Va.]
and I now I finally got my 110th, so I guess
we both still have some left in the tank.”
-- Force after scoring
the win on his 55th birthday
“It’s great to slide in here and
finally win one at Bristol. Beating my old buddy
Bazemore in the final was just a bonus.”
-- Force again, on scoring
his career-first victory at Bristol Dragway,
the only track on the NHRA circuit he hadn’t
previously won on
PRO STOCK
“It’s not that there is anything
wrong with the car. The chassis design is just
so radically different from anything else out
there that we have yet to find its proverbial
sweet spot. On
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a
standard Haas chassis, you have a baseline set-up
from the factory that you tune from, and it
works on 99 percent of those cars. Unfortunately,
our car, being different, is not completely
comfortable with it. Just as Jerry (Haas) didn’t
arrive at the set-up overnight, and he was gathering
data from more than eight cars. We’re going
it alone, and getting closer with every pass,
so it’s just taking time.” --
Warren Johnson before qualifying 10th, explaining
his uncharacteristically slow start in 2004
“When you’re hanging on by one-thousandth,
you can’t breathe until you know for sure
you’re qualified.” --
Eddie Guarnaccia, crew chief for Kenny Koretsky,
after running 6.880 seconds to beat out Rickie
Smith’s 6.881 for the 16th and final qualifying
spot
“I’ve definitely got a bull’s
eye on my back, and they’re all going to
be taking there best shot and gunning for me,
so you’re darn right, I can’t back
off a bit.” --
Greg Anderson after qualifying on top with a
track record 6.790 at a record speed of 202.52
mph
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