"That was a tough one." — Cory McClenathan after Bob Vandergriff came from behind to win a close first-round race against him
“Wanting to win so badly, I tried to help it by pedaling it, but as it turned out, the car didn’t need any help. It would’ve made it through the area where it was shaking, according to the computer graphs. We made a run Friday and the tires shook a little at the same place and I didn’t pedal it. My butt told me to pedal it Sunday but my mind didn’t answer.” — Millican questioning his driving decisions after losing a close match to Will in round one
"We did the burnout, but had no intention of sending her down the track. In a deal like this you can only hope the opponent fouls. Safety of drivers is the prime concern. I'm glad the problem was found before a small item developed into something that could have tragic results.” — Ken Black, team owner for Will, on the decision to forfeit the second round to Bazemore after discovering a “bubble” on the outside sidewall of her car’s left rear slick
"We really wanted to win this one for Dad. But, I'm sure he would be happy with what we accomplished. Today was our best day of the season, and I really wish he was here to see it." — Doug Kalitta after making it to the semis, but losing traction against Fuller, on the death of his father, Doug Sr., just a few days earlier
"A lot of people say we mess up in the final round, but we're just really aggressive.” — Fuller on going up in smoke after laying a .044 holeshot on Schumacher
"Doug Kalitta is a competitor of mine and I need to beat him because that's my job, but I was kind of pulling for the guy today. He's part of our family out here and he lost his dad this week so we're all hurting for him. I wanted to race him in the final so I could be the first one to either congratulate him or give him the trophy because this one belongs to him. I will present it to him as soon as I get the chance.” — Schumacher on the decision to hand over his Norwalk “Wally” to Kalitta in memory of his father, who passed away June 26
FUNNY CAR
(Brad Turk photo)
"Everyone on this team lives with the expectation of winning every time we go to the line—and it pays off. Call it what you want, positive thinking, success orientation, whatever—but I guarantee it's not just dumb luck.” — Mike Ashley on rebounding from two straight DNQs to earn his second race win in 2007 with a final-round victory over Kenny Bernstein
“I'm probably a little gun shy after last weekend, and being down a body we were being a little cautious.” — Tommy Johnson Jr. after qualifying 4th, on shutting off a little early in
his Friday and Saturday passes after suffering a huge engine fire at the previous event in Englishtown, NJ
“We went down the track on all four runs and we're happy with that. We're learning how to go down the race track and that's going to win us some rounds during the year.” — Tim Wilkerson after qualifying 6th, on finally reaching some consistency with his team after struggling early this season and most of last year
"Before this weekend, (crew chief) Brian (Corradi), Mark [Oswald], Steve [Boggs] and I sat and went over everything we'd tried in the past two events, and found what had changed—and then went back to what had been working so well.” — Ashley on qualifying 8th and setting a track record speed of 329.58 mph after suffering DNQs at the previous two events
