Volume IX, Issue 6, Page 45

"We'll see what the weather holds for us tomorrow, because if it gets any hotter at all we're going to have real challenge on our hands and you'll see an awful lot of pedaling and tire smoke. On Sunday, for the fans, that can be really exciting, so it's not a bad thing, but we'll just have to be ready to do whatever it takes to get to the finish line tomorrow. When we get there, the object is to be the first one to cross it.”— Jeff Arend after qualifying 13th

"The Impala has given us better downforce over what we had last year. Our halftrack speeds are much quicker, and even though we've struggled in other areas, we've learned what makes this Chevy tick. We're now reaping the rewards from that in the halftrack area, and not only in the top end. It's really important to us right now in the halftrack areas for us to keep this thing hooked up and pulling.”— Johnson after going a track record 4.72 on Friday night and qualifying number one for the eighth time in his career

"I would be upset if everybody on the team wasn't disappointed. We deserve to be disappointed, but we will not be dissuaded.”— Mike Ashley on finishing dead last of 20 entries in qualifying and failing to make the raceday cut for the third straight year at his “home” track

"It seems for every bit of progress we make the next weekend we end up taking two steps back.”— Kenny Bernstein on DNQing at E-town after making a good showing in the previous race at Chicago

"It just wasn't a good weekend.”— Gary Scelzi on qualifying 15th, then losing to John Force in round one

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"We got a little before half-track when we lost a cylinder. We were still in the race when it started mixing up the cylinders, then we lost the blower belt. We made a race of it, but it just wasn't the outcome we expected.”— Cruz Pedregon on losing to brother and teammate Tony Pedregon in the first round

"When you go up against a team that sets low E.T., it makes you push the envelope harder and run the risk of losing traction. That's exactly what we did today.”— Gary Densham on his first-round loss to polesitter Johnson

"It caught me off guard. Usually there's a warning and you'll hear the motor going away, or something like that. I had to pedal it, which is a cardinal sin in a Funny Car on the top end, but I pedaled it and it took off, and I thought, 'This is going to be all right.' Our car just doesn't blow up. We haven't oiled the track in three years, but all of sudden, out of nowhere, it was blazing pretty good. Then the smoke started and I just locked it up, slid it a few times and decided it was time to get out.”— Johnson on the huge fire he went through at the end of his race against Densham

“The right lane was actually a little worse because it had big pit marks of concrete that had come up from half-track on, so it was a matter of negotiating. And the left lane seemed a little better, and that's why you saw most of the Fuel cars take the left lane. We felt comfortable enough that we were going to go down there and run a mid-4.90, but it locked the clutch up and then it started slowly spinning the tires and then it got worse. And out popped Tim Wilkerson in my side window. He spun the tires pretty good, too, just not as bad as we did.”— Capps, who raced in the left lane, on falling to Wilkerson in round one

"We ran a lot better than a lot of them did out there, but it wasn't good enough in that round. That's how it goes."— Ed McCulloch, crew chief for Capps, on the 5.05 at 288.15 they ran against Wilkerson’s 5.01/ 276.69 combination