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QUOTATION MARKS
NHRA quotes
from Houston
Compiled by Ian
Tocher
4/20/04
The NHRA made its annual
national event stop at Houston Raceway Park
Apr. 16-18, for the 17th annual O'Reilly Spring
Nationals presented by Pennzoil. As usual, the
racers told the story in their own words through
NHRA and team press releases.
TOP FUEL
"It's more than just the beer wars that we've
had in the past. It's the beer wars plus five."
-- Brandon Bernstein
before the race, commenting on the level of
competition in T/F this season
"I have been doing this most all of my life.
I guess that's why I'm not too concerned yet.
There are ebbs and flows with everything, especially
racing. The way I see it, with the way our year
has started, we're due for a four- or five-race
winning streak." --
Scott Kalitta on his less-than-stellar results
so far in '04
"We are bringing in Larry Frazier for three
races to see what we are doing. Frazier is an
aggressive tuner, and we are a conservative
team." -- Virgil Hartman,
team owner for daughter Rhonda Hartman-Smith
and her husband John Smith, on their search
for improved performance
"Man, it would be awesome to get our first
NHRA win on our one-year anniversary with Team
104+ Performance Additives. Hopefully things
will go well on Sunday and we can bring home
a victory." -- Clay
Millican on his hopes to reward his sponsor
after qualifying 7th
"It looks like it will be a race or two before
this track comes in. Sun's hot and the track
is slick, not a good mix."
-- Rick Henkelman, co-owner of David Baca's
car, after qualifying 15th on the recently resurfaced
Houston strip
"I am as happy as I have ever been in a racecar,
but I would be lying if I told you that I don't
want a win very badly."
-- David Grubnic before qualifying 4th, then
losing to teammate Scott Kalitta in round one
"This team may not have the biggest budget,
but it's got the biggest heart." --
Bill Miller, team owner for Brady Kalivoda,
before qualifying 11th, but falling to Larry
Dixon in the opening round
"The guys on this team are coming on strong.
They were awesome between the first and second
round, turning this car around and readying
it for the second round."
-- Cory MacClenathan rebuilding his team's confidence
after a very public failing at the previous
race in Las Vegas
"Truth be told, we kind of struggled all weekend
with tire shake. It reared its ugly head again
against Dixon." -- Tony
Schumacher after falling to Dixon in round two
"You come here and you get down to four cars
and we had a car that was running really good,
but we spun the tires and got beat." --
Dixon on his semi-final loss to Millican
"It was disappointing to lose." --
Millican stating the obvious after coming up
short against Bernstein in his career-first
NHRA final-round appearance
"We knew someone needed to step up and slow
Schumacher down. It was fortunate to see Dixon
beat him in the second round. I won't go as
far as saying I was rooting for that team but
I was glad to see their win light come on."
-- Bernstein on how
racing sometimes makes for strange bed-fellows
"When we're still racing and it's time to go
into the finals, we don't have time to think
about the statistics, but when you get a chance
to digest it, it's pretty awesome to think we're
five-for-five in the finals."
-- Bernstein again, on his perfect record so
far in the big-money round
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