NHRA Quotes from Route 66 Raceway
Compiled by Ian Tocher
Photos by Mike Fischbeck
6/14/06
John Force got his 120th career win, but his first this season; Doug Kalitta won his fourth of the last five events; Kurt Johnson defeated ex-teammate Greg Anderson for his second event title this year; and Ryan Schnitz scored his first win in 2006. That’s how it went at the 9th annual CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals held June 9-11, at Route 66 Raceway, near Chicago. And as usual, the racers told the story in quotes taken from NHRA and team press releases.
"(Crew chief) Rahn (Tobler) has a very aggressive tune-up, but it's also very safe. We were able to stay in the same lane all day, and the car was perfect. (Team owner Connie Kalitta) has pulled back a little and let Rahn and Jim-O (Oberhofer, Hillary Will's crew chief) run the cars the way they want to run them. It's great to see him develop that confidence in what they're doing."— Doug Kalitta on winning from the left lane against a tire-smoking Melanie Troxel and picking up his 28th career win in 51 final-round appearances
"I was pretty sure that we were going to get that session in, that eventually we would have an opportunity to do that, but when it keeps drizzling on you and drizzling on you, just enough that you can't go out there and race, it gets a little frustrating. It really kind of wears you out, that anticipation to get out there.”— Troxel on waiting out rain showers on Saturday afternoon that eventually made the 
show run long and forced the cancellation of all pro final qualifying sessions
"I think the fans who braved today's bad weather may have seen us begin to turn the corner."— Tony Schumacher after earning his sixth number-one slot in qualifying with a 4.447 at 321.27 mph—the quickest pass made so far this season—referring to the many early exits from competition his team has suffered this year
"You've got to experience growing pains to grow.”— Hillary Will on her redlight start against J.R. Todd in round one on raceday
"It was a good weekend but not a great weekend because we didn't win the event."— David Baca, who qualified 3rd at 4.504 and a career-best 331.69 mph, after losing to Cory McClenathan in round two
"I thought the car was smoking the tires, but when I realized the chutes came out I checked everything in the cockpit to make sure it didn't come from the button (on the steering wheel that usually deploys it). We looked and saw a camera cable wrapped around the parachute cable. It was just an unfortunate circumstance.”— McClenathan on his freakish loss to Kalitta in the semis
"It started shaking going into smoking the tires, and I tried to pedal it, but unfortunately the car was already turning a little bit when it smoked the tires the first time. When I put my foot down it smoked the tires again and let the back end break loose and turn hard towards the centerline. The car got sideways, and that is one of the more bizarre things to happen. But, I actually got the front end of the car back into our lane. It was the back tires that clipped (the centerline and the cone). That was a pretty wild ride … It's unfortunate, but they went out and ran a 4.50, so we would have had to go straight down the track without pedaling it to beat that. So, really crossing the centerline didn't really matter at that point.”— Troxel on being disqualified while racing Kalitta in the final round
“We're really on a roll now. It's so tough to win out here now with all the great competition, so we feel really fortunate to be able to have the streak we're having.”— Kalitta referring to his winning streak of late and climbing to within 71 of Troxel’s points lead