"My little sister Heather, who just got back from Iraq last month, got here just before that last run and I thinkshe may have been our good luck charm. So now I'm not going to let her go home tonight, she's got to stay here for tomorrow so we can whip the Sarge in the first round."— Doug Herbert on his secret weapon after squeezing into the 16th qualifying slot with his final attempt
"That was a real surprise. I guess if you race long enough, it will happen to everyone . . . except John Force."— Clay Millican after being bumped from the qualifying list in the final session, commenting on the Funny Car king’s record 372 consecutive raceday appearances
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"It's tough to take. I'm not a real good fan to watch from the sidelines.But, it is what it is and we'll move on."— Tony Schumacher on losing to Herbert in the initial round of competition, his first opening-round loss since 15 races ago
"I could see that Melanie was running strong. But you never know if a blower belt might come off, or there might be some other mechanical problem,
so I got on and off the throttle twice, trying to get traction to the ground. It just wouldn't hook up."— Brandon Bernstein on losing traction early in his first-round pairing against Troxel
"It was no fun. There's no way to paint a pretty picture on a loss.”— Larry Dixon on losing to Doug Kalitta’s holeshot in round two
"That's just some of the stuff that happens in drag racing.”— Morgan Lucas on going up in smoke against Melanie Troxel in the second round
"That last run left us puzzled.”— Cory McClenathan on immediately blowing the tires off against Herbert in round two
"We had an area right at the one-second spot in the track that gave us some problems this weekend. It was marginal in qualifying and in the second round today, then in the semifinal, it looked really good. Of course, in the final it went the other way."— Richard Hogan, crew chief for Troxel, on their loss of traction in the final round
"We just kept battling all weekend and then got it done."— Grubnic on picking up his second career Top Fuel win
