"It is pretty exciting. I never expected things to happen as quickly as they have. I'm just trying to take it race by race.”— J.R. Todd on picking up his 4th career win after winning three times in his 2006 Rookie of the Year performance
“As a longtime bracket racer, it's like I'm back to my roots. I can stick 4.48 or 4.49 on the index and let it rip.”— Rod Fuller after running a career-best 4.481 to start second in the quickest NHRA Top Fuel field in history
"It's a good and bad thing. I'm probably going to pay for that. I just took the fastest person in our household away from my husband (Funny Car driver, Tommy Johnson, Jr.). That's been kind of a little rivalry going back and forth between the two of us, so there probably will be some consequences for that one, but it's nice to have it just the same."— Troxel on going 4.541 at 332.51 mph, her top speed ever, to qualify 12th
“Drag racing is a very humbling sport."— Clay Millican on qualifying 17th and missing the first raceday of his first full season of NHRA competition
"This race sort of sets the tone. You always want to start the season on a good note and, unfortunately, it did not happen."— Schumacher after going up in smoke in round one against number-16 qualifier Joe Hartley
"We had the car to win, but a parts failure kept it from happening. There's not much else to say about it.”— Doug Herbert on blowing up his engine while leading Rod Fuller at half-track in the opening round
"What I found is that Top Fuel is very intense. It's intense in Funny Car too, but a lot of times your opponent beats himself because they're harder to drive. There's also a smaller tuning window in Funny Car. Dragsters go down the track more. So, the starting line plays a bigger role in Top Fuel. The cars are closer and more consistent and it comes down to the driver a lot of times. It's intense, which I like."— Bazemore reflecting on his Top Fuel initiation after falling to teammate Fuller in the second round
“"It was an expensive win for me because Jimmy had this board in the trailer and every time he tuned me to a 4.5 pass, I had to put a dollar up there. The money is for the crew guys’ dinner and whatever. Well, last year I told the team that every time I ran a 4.4, I'd put a $100 bill up there. I had to win the race to pay for all the 4.4s we ran this weekend."— Todd referring to crew chief Jimmy Walsh after making a 4.69-seconds, first-round pass followed by a pair of 4.47s and a 4.482 at 324.98 mph to win the final over a tire-smoking Bernstein