"I saw sprinkles on the windshield when I was backing up from the burnout, and I stepped on it because I was so ready to race I wanted to get it done.”— Tommy Johnson Jr. on the encroaching weather just before he laid down a 4.741-seconds pass at 321.73 mph that not only beat Gary Scelzi for the event win, but also set
low E.T. of the meet
"The conditions are changing so much; there's a chance of rain one minute, then it gets hot. Dan Olson (team consultant) and Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) are making a great team right now and I feel so confident in the car, but you know how Sundays are.”— Ron Capps after qualifying in the number-three position
"Three out of four ain't bad.”— Gary Scelzi after qualifying 6th, on smoking the tires in his final attempt
“The way the thing was working, it just wasn't going down a good path. It's looking like it's better now, and it's throwing us some bones. So, I'm feeling much better."— Tim Wilkerson after slotting in at 15th on the qualifying list
“John is one of the best who ever strapped into a race car, but we've beaten those guys enough to know we can do it again."— Phil Burkart Jr. after qualifying 16th and having to face 13-time class champion John Force in the opening round of eliminations
“In this sport if you don't go to the finish line nothing matters. We had a parts breakage this morning and that ended up putting us in a position where things had to be perfect for the last run. We are very, very confident about the tune-up. There was a pinched O-ring in the car, which resulted in an oil leak and that was it.”— Whit Bazemore expressing disappointment over not getting into the raceday field after being shut off on the start line before his final qualifying attempt
"When it's raining all morning, you kind of turn your brain off and zone out, because you can't stay amped up and tense. My wife, Connie, and I were just relaxing in the motorhome when we heard some cars warming up. I got going and pretty soon we were buttoning the car up and pushing back. You go from being a couch potato to ratcheting up the emotions in a split second."— Del Worsham on his mood in the pits before facing former teammate Mike Ashley in round one
“I hate losing, but especially hate losing when I've had a few seconds to think I actually won.”— Burkart Jr. after laying a big .052 holeshot on Force in round one, but coming up .019 short at the top end
“It was some kind of parts failure or it ran out of fuel because all of a sudden it got very ugly and very lean. And when it does that it really burns parts up. We sat at the starting line for a long time waiting on Bob over in the other lane to get to the starting line and it may have just burned too much fuel. It's part of building a memory bank on some of the guys you race against. You've got to make sure you just do the right thing up there. — Capps on losing an engine in his first-round loss to Bob Gilbertson
