Compiled by Ian Tocher
Photos by Ron Lewis
4/18/2007

The NHRA national event tour made its first of two visits this year on Apr. 13-15, for the 8th annual Summitracing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Second-generation Top Fuel pilot Brandon Bernstein and Funny Car driver Robert Hight scored emotional wins at LVMS, while Greg Anderson prevailed in Pro Stock.

Also significant at Vegas was the return of John Force Racing to competition after sitting out the previous race at Houston to grieve the loss of team driver Eric Medlen a couple of weeks earlier in a testing crash at Gainesville, FL. Though Hight got the job done in stirring fashion for the JFR camp, Force himself saw his string of 395 straight qualifying successes come to an end when Jack Beckman bumped him from the field in the last session. Top Fuel driver Doug Kalitta also saw his 184-straight raceday appearances come to an end when he also was bumped from the final qualifying session.

And as always, the entire story can be learned through racer quotes taken from NHRA and team press releases.

"Every time I was in a final, Eric was always down at the end of the track. If I won or lost, when I came around that corner, he was always there. It felt great to know that J.R. (Todd) was down there for me this time. I know Eric was there, too, he just wasn't there in the physical sense. It was very emotional. I loved that guy, I really did, with all my heart.”— Brandon Bernstein after beating Bob Vandergriff Jr. in the final round, on the close friendship he shared with Eric Medlen and continues to share with Todd

"Not to throw a wet blanket over our accomplishment, but unfortunately, we did not get down the track today."— Tony Schumacher on his poor showing in both of Saturday’s qualifying rounds after seizing the number-one slot with a 4.479-seconds pass at 329.83 mph on Friday night

"I wasn't going to give up. I gave the throttle a pedal and hoped something would happen to him and I could run him down. Something did, but we just ran of race trackand weren't quite able to make it to the finish line when the belt came off."— Clay Millican on losing traction, then trying to catch Bernstein in round one

"When the engine quit firing on eight cylinders and the burst panel ruptured, there's about 8,000 horsepower that just goes dead in the water. No matter how hard you try to stomp on the throttle, it just isn't going anywhere. I was holding my breath, hoping Clay wouldn't drive by us."— Bernstein explaining what went wrong for him in round one before managing to coast through to advance

“I need to work to be able to get the car to recover. I caught it that time, but I'm still pedaling it too quickly.”— Whit Bazemore on his continuing Top Fuel orientation after losing grip against Cory McClenathan in his first opening-round loss of the year

"When you go into raceday with only one clean run under your belt, that makes the task that much harder. Perhaps, we're fighting a gremlin or something, I'm not sure.”— Schumacher alluding to his only successful qualifying pass after an up-in-smoke loss in round one to number-16 qualifier Todd

"It was a freak deal.”— Cory Mac on his car’s rear end breaking after only 30 passes on it in round two against Bernstein

"We just didn't have enough steam.”— Todd on falling short of Morgan Lucas in the second round

"Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results. Deep down, I'm depressed. Anywhere else, I'd be happy with another semifinal finish, but being home, I'm not. I want to win this race more than any other race, even Indy. This is home. How awesome would it be to celebrate with my friends and family.”— Rod Fuller on falling in the semis to Vandergriff in front of his hometown crowd

“The progress we made is significant. It's the same car and just goes to show you it all depends on how you operate it. We just missed it in the setup on that semi-finals run, but no big deal. I think today we proved that we can and will win races this year."— Lucas on the contribution of new crew chief Rahn Tobler after a very narrow semi-final loss to Bernstein