THEY SAID IT. . .

Quotes from Memphis

Compiled by Ian Tocher
9/23/03

ere, in their own words, are the thoughts of NHRA competitors at the rain-delayed O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals, held Sept. 19-22, at Memphis Motorsports Park.

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"To be able to go to my hometown racetrack and race against the best of the NHRA is pretty cool. I have been to this race every year to watch those guys, and to actually compete against them here is something I never thought would happen." -- Clay Millican, who lives in nearby Drummonds, TN, on his first NHRA Top Fuel appearance in Memphis

"In this business I guess we never say never, but we're pretty sure this will be our last trip to Memphis as a driver." -- Kenny Bernstein before qualifying 7th, then losing to Doug Kalitta in the second round

"I'm fine, but for a sore knee Ö I'll ice my knee down tonight and be ready to roll. Nobody will keep me out of the cockpit tomorrow." -- Tony Schumacher after a spectacular crash in qualifying that saw his dragster split in half at more than 300 mph

"Some shout, some throw their fist in the air, the dance is my way of showing emotion when I do something good." -- David Baca on his post- qualifying jig on Friday after running a 4.533 that stood up for number-one qualifier honors

"Around 1000-feet we dropped a retainer, the small pad that sits between the rocker arm and the valve stem and allows you to adjust the valve. Then we lost (dropped) two

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cylinders. I guess the good news, if there is any good news in losing, is that we didn't have any major blower or engine problems." -- Cory McClenathan on his second-round loss to Larry Dixon

"Although the driver didn't do his part today, there were some positive things that came from today's eliminations. First and foremost we didn't lose any ground to Cory McClenathan, who's just ahead of us in the POWERade Top Fuel point standings. Secondly, we added to our learning curve today learning how to deal with and run with a lot of grains of water (moisture/humidity) in the air." -- Baca after losing to Darrell Russell in round two

"You're never happy to just get into the final round; it's a place where you'd like to win. It's what makes people competitors. You don't want to be the guy that's just there, you want to go out there and win." -- Dixon after losing to Schumacher for the second time in a final round this season

"No question, this win is special. When you have a wreck like we did, the first thing you think of after you realize that you're okay is that you've ruined a great racecar. Well, apparently we have more than one great racecar because this back-up one was unreal today." -- Tony Schumacher referring to his crash in qualifying before going on to win in the final over Dixon