“When you get it figured out and it goes down the track, it's good. But the margin of where the car will go down the track, at least for us, is very, very narrow, and apparently for a lot of other people—witness the fact that so many cars didn't go down the race track this weekend so far. As the top qualifiers have proved, when you do have a handle on it, it's a very strong running tire.”— Whit Bazemore on the new Goodyear 2420 rear tire mandated by NHRA at the previous event
"Speed equals power."— Mike Ashley, the number-12 qualifier, after running 327.51 mph to set top speed of the last qualifying session
"It's not anybody's fault but our own.”— Gary Scelzi on becoming the first Funny Car champion in 21 years to DNQ at an event the year following his title win
"We're trying to get the thing figured out, but the engine and clutch combination just aren't happy. Then you throw that stinking tire in the mix and the car's upside down … I'm tremendously embarrassed at our performance.”— Tim Wilkerson after suffering his second straight DNQ
"There must have been some sort of mechanical gremlin in the car somewhere.”— Tommy Johnson on shaking the tires in a first-round loss to Gary Densham
"That was the nicest, smoothest pass of the weekend until the blower belt gave way.”— Robert Hight on falling to Gilbertson in round one
"I told Brian (Corradi, crew chief) the other day, ‘We can't worry about winning rounds; we just have to get our car to run good,’ and it's running a lot better than it was. When the car runs well the results are going to come. The problem is the tune-up window is so small that we can't tune it."— Bazemore after losing traction against Tony Pedregon in the opening round
"I actually thought he redlit. He left so early on me, I was sitting there thinking 'Wow, there he goes,' before I hit the throttle. It's a good thing for me they had a problem, I guess, because that could have been the world's worst hole-shot loss. A 4.89 could have beaten our 4.78 with that much of an advantage at the lights.”— Worsham on Ashley’s .007 light against him in round one before Ashley’s car lost traction
"We knew we were going to have to run a mid-70 to compete with Del, but, we haven't found the sweet spot to run a 70. We've got a lot of horsepower right now—we just have to find a way to get it to the ground.”— Ashley on his view of the opening round against Worsham
"He's a guy who is always at the top of the reaction time averages. I've been on my game pretty well all year, but running Bob gets you amped up another notch because he's one of the best at the tree."— Burkart before going up in smoke against Gilbertson in round two
“Sometimes it's just fate.”— John Force after an engine misfire led to a supercharger failure in his semi-final loss to Capps
“We had a fast car but for some reason it didn't respond.”— Eric Medlen after striking the tires in the semis against Gilbertson