“The number one (thing) is that nobody got hurt. Eric and Ashley winning rounds moved them up the points with Robert. My hot rod is still struggling. (Both) cars will have to back to Metalcrafters to be worked on, but that’s why we have back-ups. We’ll be out here (Monday) to test and get ready for Houston. Thank God for the funding that I have with Castrol because a couple hundred thousand went down on just two runs right there. We haven’t sized up the real cost, but that is what the game is all about.”— John Force, who fell to teammate Eric Medlen in round one, on Medlen and his daughter, Ashley, sideswiping the Gainesville walls in back-to-back second-round losses
“Everything seemed fine. It was going straight and then all of a sudden it drifted to the left a little bit and I mean it just drove right over there (into the right side wall). Actually I thought it might miss it or graze it, but the rear end came around and it hit it pretty good. It just goes to show you, you have to be on your toes at all times in these nitro cars. They are vicious."
— Medlen on losing the handle against Bernstein in round two
“Going up for that run it was just a crazy session. Eric hit the wall. You don’t know what to expect. When I pedaled it, the car hooked back up straight and I remember thinking ‘Yes!’ (but) once it did hook up, it just took me into the wall. It is frustrating, because if I wouldn’t have pedaled it I might have won because he smoked the tires.”— A. Force on her wall-banging incident while racing a traction-challenged Phil Burkart in the second round
“You go to Pomona, you got to Phoenix and you get your season started, but then you usually get a two- or three-week break. Everybody has seen what they've got, and they go home and refine their stuff before they come to Gainesville, so usually everybody comes here with their guns loaded. It's a tough one to win because it's tough competition."— Greg Anderson after running the table at Gainesville by setting new national E.T. and speed records, qualifying number one and winning the final round over Larry Morgan
"The car went up on the tires early and it pulled through all the gears. When they told me what I'd run, I had to ask them to repeat it."— Jeg Coughlin after earning the provisional pole on Friday with a then-track-record 6.632-seconds pass
"It's exciting to drive these cars like this, but you're on pins and needles because you just don't know if you're going to make it down at all. When you have air like this and you have conditions like this, these cars become so finicky because they have so much more power than we're used to having with them. It's probably a 50 horsepower jump from what we would normally have in these engines
just because of these atmospheric conditions. We really don't have experience running them like that, so some of us look kind of foolish out there at times. Either you hit it perfect and you run really fast and set records, or you don't make it down the racetrack.”— Anderson after going 6.566 seconds at 211.20 mph to earn his second number-one starting position this year and become the first NHRA Pro Stock pilot to break the 210-mph barrier
"Our approach to racing this car remains the same as it has been all season, namely using what we know works from the past, taking what the car will give us, while simultaneously injecting what we are doing to improve its performance. It's a constant juggling act, where we find ourselves thinking outside the box, trying to expand our horizons, while trying to run consistently.”— Warren Johnson after setting career-best marks in both E.T. and speed with a 6.587/209.69 pass to finish 4th in qualifying
"I was scared. Not just for me, but for everybody that works hard on this team. It's a lot of wasted effort if you don't qualify.”— Jason Line after breaking into the field in 5th place with his fourth and final qualifying attempt
“Considering some of the top cars didn't qualify, we are happy to be racing . . . and we get lane choice.”— Dave Connolly on failing to keep pace with the record-setting frontrunners, despite going a career-best 6.600 at 209.72 to start 7th on raceday