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"I never thought I'd be standing here with three wins and people talking about rookie of the year. We were only going to run part-time this year, but [sponsor] Evan Knoll stepped up his involvement and said straight out he wanted to beat Tony Schumacher. I was like, ‘Well who doesn't?’ but he's given us what it takes to do it.”— Todd on his Jimmy Walsh-led team
"I hit the throttle, and almost right away it went up in smoke, but I saw Robert having the same problems. It was on, man, and I just kept feathering it, and trying to get it hooked up. I hit it again, and again, but all it would do was spin, so I grabbed the brake and kept laying my foot on the throttle as gently as I could. It finally started making headway, and I never saw him, so I just kept after it.”— Phil Burkart on the pedaling duel he won against Robert Hight in the final round
"We had destiny in our own hands for this race and we just didn't do it.”— Ron Capps on losing to Burkart in round one and eventually relinquishing his points lead to John Force after Force made it to the semis
"You know, in a Funny Car, you can't see the car in the other lane. In a Top Fuel car you can see the nose and know they are probably 15 feet ahead of you. In a Funny Car, if you see them, they are probably 70 feet ahead of you. I never saw him and kept thinking, ‘We're getting there, we're getting there.’ But then the win light never came on and I turned the corner and saw my Matco Tools crew guys with long faces, so that's when it sunk in that we didn't win."— Jack Beckman after losing to Force in round two
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