CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
NHRA ARIZONA NATIONALS
WILD HORSE PASS MOTORSPORTS PARK AT CHANDLER, ARIZONA
POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
FEB. 26, 2017
An interview with Pro Stock winner GREG ANDERSON, SUMMIT RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier; 87th career victory):
Q: HOW DO YOU KEEP UP THAT CONSISTENCY YEAR AFTER YEAR?
GREG ANDERSON: “I really don’t know how to answer that. I think it’s the competition. It drives you so hard. Pro Stock is not dead. This is going to be the best year of Pro Stock that I can remember. You have the young cat, Tanner Gray, the resurgence with Chevy of the Elite cars, the Gray cars, and Drew Skillman did a great job all weekend. It’s going to be a whale of a year. I don’t think I had a race that was decided by more than a foot and a half. It was just a great race day.”
Q: IS THIS WIN AS SATISFYING AS YOUR FIRST BACK IN 2001?
GREG ANDERSON: “Absolutely. I’m not getting any younger, and you never know when, or if, you’ll get that next win. When you do see that win light come on, you want to put your fist through the windshield you’re so excited.”
TOP FUEL:
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (No. 7 qualifier; fell in final): “It’s easy to get down on yourself when you go out on the final – and the same setup as last year. It’s pretty ironic how it worked out. But if you look at the bigger picture, we went to the final, we moved up quite a bit in points. We struggled coming in here, so to turn it around and have a great car and move up to third in points, that’s something to be proud of. I’ll just have to pick up the pieces, go into Gainesville and hopefully we can find some luck and do it again there. I was feeling good about it. Obviously, the nerves are there, but they’re there every single run. I was feeling good, feeling confidence. I have a great team behind me, but it just wasn’t our day. I was slow on the light, and she happened to get us.”
FUNNY CAR:
COURTNEY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier; fell in first round): “Not exactly how we wanted to be leaving Phoenix. I’m really proud of my Advance Auto Parts team. We definitely have a fast race car and definitely missed out on a little bit of luck that first round this time. Our car shook hard so I had to get out of it. I tried peddling it, but (Jim) Campbell was already through the lights at that time. Ready to put this weekend behind us and focus on testing tomorrow, and I’m really excited to get back out to the track in Gainesville, Florida. We definitely have a great thing over here with our team and I’m really excited for this season. We have a fast hot rod; we just have to focus on the consistency of it and go rounds in Florida to make up for what we lost out on here.”
JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK COOLANT & MOTOR OIL/REPUBLIC SERVICES CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 12 qualifier; fell in first round): “It’s early in the season. We’ve got a whole new team over here, even though I’ve raced with (crew chief) Jimmy Prock. A lot of cars out there are struggling. We’ll be fast. The deal is to stay in the Countdown, try to win races – that’s what we’re here for. We’re going to stay here all day tomorrow and test – all four cars. I’m not where I want to be. Even if I won this race, I wouldn’t be where I want to be. We want to keep getting better, that’s the key. We’re in this game.”
ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 9 qualifier; fell in second round): “Definitely not the weekend we wanted, but we have a game plan. We’re going to stay here and test. We have two weekends off before Gainesville, so we can test to get this car going down the track quick. We’re just chasing a lot of things right now and under the pressure to qualify well and win rounds, and it’s hard to do that when you’re making as many changes as we are. It will be nice to get out there tomorrow under no pressure and start working the bugs out of this thing and learn some things. Hard work is the only way we’re going to get back on track. We don’t want to have any more weekends like this. It’s all with the clutch. We have to make runs and figure it out. We have plenty of power, but it’s all with the clutch.”
PRO STOCK:
DREW SKILLMAN, RAY SKILLMAN MOTORSPORTS, RAY SKILLMAN AUTO CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 9 qualifier, fell in final round): “We were lost in the first event of the season, but my guys did a fantastic job setting this car back up. My guys have made a great effort these past two weeks. Tommy Lee has done a fantastic job setting this car back up. We made it to the final, so that gives us a lot of confidence heading the Gainesville.”
JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier, fell in second round): “It’s still a good weekend; as long as one of us (KB Racing drivers) wins. You can’t win every weekend, so all in all the car ran really well. Maybe not as good on race day, but if you’re going to win in this class you have to be perfect and we weren’t perfect today.”
TANNER GRAY, GRAY MOTORSPORTS, VALVOLINE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 3 qualifier, fell in semifinals): “Hopefully, we can have a little bit faster race car in Gainesville. I think we’re just struggling making good runs right now. We win as a team and lose as a team. I think we’ll get it figured out, but it’s tough to go out there and lose that way (6.56 seconds to 6.59). All in all, I think it’s going well. Second race making the semifinals and everybody is doing their job. We’ll see what happens in Gainesville. Obviously, the more runs you make the more you learn. We’ll go test before Gainesville and try to learn some stuff.”
VINCENT NOBILE, MOUNTAIN VIEW RACING, MOUNTAIN VIEW TIRE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 4 qualifier, fell in second round): “It’s all right; you can’t win them all. We definitely went into today with hopes of winning, but we fell just short. It’s early and there are plenty of races to go. I’m pleased with the car’s performance this weekend. We just have to get a little better on race day.”
JEG COUGHLIN JR., ELITE MOTORSPORTS, JEGS.COM ELITE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “Coming into the season, our focus was just horsepower, horsepower, horsepower and it looks like we have accomplished some things there. We had a great run as we were sorting things out through qualifying. We had a great run in Q4. I was low in Round 1 today and wasn’t far off in Round 2. We made just a so-so run in the semis against Drew (Skillman). We felt like we could probably go out there and run a .56 and just left a couple behind there and then obviously left 2 (hundredths) behind on the starting line. We will certainly not hang our heads a bit.”
BO BUTNER, BUTNER AUTO SALES, JIM BUTNER CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 6 qualifier, fell in second round): “It’s not the outcome you ever want, but it’s the second race of a long year. We have a lot to learn and will go test. This is an older-model car with a whole new combination that I’m not used to. We’ll get it going and be right there again to challenge for the win.”
ERICA ENDERS, ELITE MOTORSPORTS, ELITE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 10 qualifier; fell in first round): “”We shook last (qualifying) session, but we didn’t expect to do that going up there today. We weren’t set on kill or anything like that so we might have something wrong with our race car. The good news is we have a couple of weeks before Gainesville (next event) that we can go to work on it. The bad news is our race day is over unfortunately. We are way better than that, and I fully expected to send that team packing first round.”
SHANE GRAY, GRAY MOTORSPORTS, GRAY MANUFACTURING TECH CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 7 qualifier, fell in second round): “I had fun, though it’s never too much fun to lose on a holeshot. I was a tick late on the reaction time, but it is what it is. We’ve been testing stuff all weekend on this car and transfer it to Tanner (Gray’s car). It’s been a successful weekend. I got to come and race with him, had a fast car and had a good time. We have plans to test (before the Gatornationals) and I’ll compete next in Las Vegas.”
CHRIS MCGAHA, HARLOW SAMMONS RACING, HARLOW SAMMONS OF ODESSA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (competed in 100th career race. No. 8 qualifier, fell in first round): “We continue to learn with this new car. We have some stuff we want to do in the engine shop, and if we can’t get it done we’ll skip testing (in Bradenton, Florida, ahead of the Gaternationals). Our top concern is more horsepower, so we’ll concentrate on that first. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get that work done and take it to the track to test.”
MATT HARTFORD, HARTFORD RACING, TOTAL SEAL-CIP1-NITROFISH CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 13 qualifier, fell in first round): “We came out here to our hometown race looking to take home a Wally and by the matter of about two-hundredths of a second we lost in the first round. But it’s great to race in your home town. You have all your friends and family and all the co-workers from Total Seal here. We appreciate all the support that we have.”