NHRA Quotes from Sonoma

Compiled by Ian Tocher
8/9/04

he NHRA's best contested the 17th annual FRAM/Autolite Nationals July 30-Aug. 1 at Infineon Raceway, near Sonoma, CA, and the racers had plenty to say through their quotes in NHRA and team press releases.

TOP FUEL

"I think the Western Swing is like the Tour de France. You've got a bunch of circuits and one setup doesn't work for all three races. You have a different race setup for each race, and you've got to travel a lot of miles." — Larry Dixon offers a topical observation on probably the most grueling segment of the NHRA season

"We're pretty far behind in points, but anything can happen. Maybe we can get caught up to Doug and get a family rivalry going for the championship." — Scott Kalitta before the race, on moving up from eighth to fourth in points over the past two events, leaving him 301 points shy of Tony Schumacher's lead and 191 behind cousin Doug Kalitta in second place

"We can't afford to sleep walk at any given event, the Sonoma race included. When you start making stupid mistakes, that's when you will find yourself going the other way in the standings real quick. We've been there and done that the last couple of years and we don't want to do it again." — Schumacher on the need to focus on maintaining his lead

"Some fans heard we're carrying the camera this weekend and e-mailed to ask if it'll affect my concentration. I don't believe it will. A Top Fuel dragster has a way of getting your full attention, right when you fire it up." — Scott Weis on the in-car camera he carried for ESPN during the event

"That's certainly not the kind of results we had in mind." — Schumacher on sitting 16th after the first two rounds of qualifying

"Ever since Denver we've been pretty much in test mode. As each rule comes down all the past data you've had can be thrown out the window. There are a lot of adjustments that we used to be able to make and now we can't make those adjustments anymore. So, you have to find a new way of doing things and that's what we're doing now. It's all trial and error." — Dixon on the 85% nitro rule and new tire compound introduced two races earlier, as well as the new two-degree wing-angle limitation prescribed by NHRA at Sonoma, after qualifying 6th for raceday

"We all feel a lot better going into Sunday." — Schumacher on winding up 5th on the ladder

"If we are to win, we must do everything right each and every time down the track—and, oh yes, we must have a lot of luck." — David Baca on his chances after qualifying 7th for raceday

"The blame will have to go to the crew chief. It is something that happened. It shouldn't have happened. And it won't happen again." — Todd Smith, crew chief for Cory McClenathan, after part of the injector came loose at the hit of the throttle, costing his driver any chance of winning in round one against Doug Herbert

"You almost have to back the car down to get it to go down the track, and at that point start working on trying to make it go faster and that's what we had to do for the second round." — Dixon after losing a close one to Brandon Bernstein in round two

"Bottom line, we didn't have enough beans in that last round." — Baca after losing to David Grubnic in the second round

"I guess the track changed enough between the second and third rounds and we overpowered it." — Schumacher on losing a tire-smoking battle against D. Kalitta in the semis