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FUNNY CAR
“I promised that I’d get my focus
back where it belongs if everyone else would,
too. It was a big wake-up call. Sometimes you
forget why you’re here.” --
John Force on the meetings he had with all his
crew chiefs and team members before qualifying
began in Chicago
“This is the second time this year that
the rain has bitten us.”
-- Tommy Johnson Jr. on missing the cut after
the last round of qualifying was washed away
“The car was actually going a little slower
in the first half of the track than we normally
run. I think we could have run 332 or 333. You
know, it was stunning to make the run, but with
Tony doing what he did, I didn’t have much
time to let it sink in.” --
Gary Scelzi on being the first F/C pilot to
surpass 330 mph (330.15 in qualifying)
“A little of the thunder was lost with
Gary accomplishing the feat first. It would
have been nice to be the first one to do it,
but that is all hindsight and overall it was
an awesome run and all the credit has to go
to my team.” --
T. Pedregon on eclipsing Scelzi’s speed
in the next pair down the track with a 331.28-mph
blast
“I knew at about half-track that it was
going to do something. At the end of the track
the parachutes didn’t come out right away
and I was thinking ‘great now I’m
going to hit the
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sand
trap.’ But they did eventually come out
and I couldn’t believe what had just happened.”
-- T. Pedregon again,
on his record 4.716-secs qualifying pass
“Right now we’re extremely happy,
we’re pleased the car is doing everything
it needs to do; it’s drivable and it’s
fast. And it’s really fast, which is a
beautiful thing.” --
Scelzi again, after backing up his 330.15 with
a 330.55-mph pass in the third qualifying session
“Put it this way, we were nine miles per
hour ahead of our 315 mph run at half track
… We were on a great one.” --
Del Worsham on his 6th-place 4.771 qualifying
pass despite losing the blower belt about 1,000
feet out
“I used to say it’s early in the
year, but now that we have our eighth race this
week and ninth next week (Topeka, Kan.), it’s
definitely time for us to find the consistency
necessary to win rounds and races,” --
Jerry Toliver before qualifying 16th and falling
in round one to Tony Pedregon
“It burned up a piston and I saw fire
so I shut it off early.” --
Cruz Pedregon on his loss in round one to Tim
Wilkerson
“It was a good drag race. I had a pretty
big starting line advantage on Medlen. I didn’t
see him until about the 500-foot mark then he
put a fender out in front of me and it stayed
that way to the finish line.” --
Jeff Arend on his .074 to .108 holeshot, but
subsequent loss to Eric Medlen in round one
“It’s just a helpless feeling to
be out there smoking the tires at 800 feet and
not see a guy like Bazemore next to you. They’re
a top-notch crew. I thought maybe he had problems,
and as our luck would have it lately, he came
around me at the end.”
-- Ron Capps on his first-round loss to Whit
Bazemore
“It’s very frustrating, but it is
what it is. I’m not going to cry about
it, and I can’t do anything about it, so
we move on and we go for it all next weekend.
At least when we run three races in a row we
don’t have time to stew on it. We just
load up and go.” --
Worsham on hitting the mid-track cones and giving
away his first-round match to Bob Gilbertson
“I thought I’d won. I never saw Eric,
but when I made the turnoff, the TV crew waved
me on. I couldn’t believe it.” --
Gary Densham on losing another close one to
teammate Eric Medlen in round two
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