NHRA Quotes from Phoenix
Compiled by Ian Tocher
Photos by James Drew
2/13/06
he NHRA POWERade tour visited Phoenix, AZ’s Firebird International Raceway, Feb. 24-26, for the 22nd annual Checker, Schuck’s, Kragen Nationals, where Top Fuel honors went to Rod Fuller, Tommy Johnson Jr. won in Funny Car and Warren Johnson reached victory lane as the Pro Stock winner. As always, the entire behind-the-scenes story can be told through the racers’ quotes as they appear in NHRA and team press releases.
TOP FUEL
"The sun was in my eyes and I didn't see the win light in the final. For a second I wasn't sure who had won."— Rod Fuller after going 4.563 at 321.42 mph to defeat Melanie Troxel’s 4.589/318.92 in the final round
“I knew I was close to the wall but we wanted to make sure we got in the show."— Cory McClenathan on placing 13th after two rounds of qualifying
"The results from Friday and today were great, but it really doesn't mean much come tomorrow.”— Tony Schumacher on consistently running in the 4.40s throughout qualifying after securing the number-one position with a 4.459-seconds lap
“We qualified second, how can I not be happy?”— Larry Dixon on his best qualifying effort since last September, where he also started second at Reading, PA
"Friday night is almost the only time you're going to get the really big numbers out of the car. If you want to be number-one qualifier and you don't make it down the track Friday night, then it's probably not going to happen.”— Troxel after going 4.502 in the last qualifying session to place 3rd for raceday
“We definitely have the potential to win; we just don’t have our hand on the right knob yet to run what the top guy is running at this point. We’re very close, which is encouraging.” — Lee Beard, crew chief for Fuller, after his driver went 4.505 to qualify 4th