CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
NHRA CAROLINA NATIONALS
ZMAX DRAGWAY IN CONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA
POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
SUNDAY, SEPT. 17, 2017
An interview with Funny Car winner ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 6 qualifier; third victory of the season and third in event; 40th career win; takes top spot in Funny Car points):
Q: WHAT’S THE STORY ABOUT THAT FINAL AGAINST COURTNEY (FORCE)?
ROBERT HIGHT: You have nothing to lose it the final; you have to get after it. It was a good light and a good run. We hadn’t been in the left lane all weekend, and I was a little worried about that going into the final. That was a big run for us. What’s awesome is the lineup of drivers today that we beat. Every round we had a Countdown competitor. These Chevrolets are back. This is an unbelievable way to start the Countdown.
Q: YOU’RE NO. 1 IN THE COUNTDOWN. HOW DOES THAT FEEL?
ROBERT HIGHT: This is awesome and this is how you dream about starting the Countdown. This was a big day for us. We lost lane choice to Courtney (Force), but (crew chief) Jimmy Prock said ‘this thing will go’ and it did.
Q: HOW WAS THE CAR TODAY?
ROBERT HIGHT: We’ve had a great race car over the last 15 or so races, and that was the case today. We didn’t have our best qualifying, but we had a great day when it counted. This is probably one of the toughest race days I’ve had with every round a Countdown competitor. It was cool to get to the final with Courtney. We definitely earned this one. We got up to No. 2 in the regular season and when Ron (Capps) went out early we had to take advantage of that.
An interview with Pro Stock winner TANNER GRAY, GRAY MOTORSPORTS, VALVOLINE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier for fourth time this season; fifth victory; takes top spot in Pro Stock standings):
Q: WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THE NAYSAYERS?
TANNER GRAY: Look at me now. I like it when people doubt me. It makes me work harder and makes the whole group work strive to be better. I wouldn’t be here without all my guys. I’m just pumped to be here and take over the points lead. I never thought if you would have told me at the start of the year that we would take over the points lead at the start of the Countdown. The whole key is to go to Reading and stay consistent and try to keep it going.
Q: YOU HAVE YOUR FIRST VICTORY IN THE COUNTDOWN. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?
TANNER GRAY: I can’t thank my guys enough. They bailed me out of two rounds today. We got this car going at the right time going into the Countdown, and I can’t wait to see what we have for Reading.
Q: ARE YOU FEELING ANY PRESSURE?
TANNER GRAY: This weekend was a little different for me. I definitely was feeling a little more pressure, but that’s what we drive off of and what makes us do good. I’m just happy to be up here and hope we can be up here after Pomona with the championship trophy.
TOP FUEL:
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET TOP FUEL DRAGSTER (No. 6 qualifier; fell in semifinals in her 115th career Top Fuel race): “We came in sixth in points and moved all the way up to four and went to the semifinals. Pretty good day for us. Our car was running pretty consistent, especially in the heat. We have a great team around us, and we’re going for more wins and going for the championship. We take each run and everyone seriously; you have to have your game face on. You have to bringit every single run because there’s no easy team to beat. That last one was a struggle for us. We’ll pick up and go to the next one.”
FUNNY CAR:
JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK COOLANT & MOTOR OIL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 9 qualifier; fell in quarterfinals to No. 1 qualifier Courtney Force): “I said that we’ve turned the corner. Two (Funny Car) cars are in the (championship) hunt, and my dragster with Monster moved up to fourth with Brittany (Force). We’ll be testing more (Sept. 18) with Brittany in the Funny Car so we’ll be learning more and more about this combination. I won this race last year and now Robert (Hight) got it done and Courtney (Force) was runner-up. We’ll go into Reading motivated.”
COURTNEY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier for seventh time in 19 races this season; fell in final to teammate Robert Hight): “Definitely a great start for the Advance Auto Parts team coming to the home track for Advance Auto Parts. To come out and really show them what this sport is all about and what our team is capable of doing to go out there and get the No. 1 qualifying position and then to have such a great, consistent race car during race car and go all the way to the final round in an all-JFR final at that is pretty incredible. I’m really proud of my team. We were able to get lane choice every round. Unfortunately, that final round against Robert (Hight) he drove around us at the end when we dropped a cylinder and it slowed our car. This Chevrolet Camaro has been flaying and I think we’ve turned the corner, and this is the place to do it in the first race of the Countdown to the Championship. We made a big move here and it’s where we want to be going into Race 2 of the Countdown.”
PRO STOCK:
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier; fell in final to No. 1 qualifier Tanner Gray): “That was a shellacking. I didn’t do what I needed to do as a driver, and we didn’t do what we needed to with my car for most of the weekend. We just never really got it right, and that’s disappointing. You usually get a few of them right. But that’s why we’re going to stay here and test tomorrow. Today is over, we need to forget about it, try to go forward, and try to learn. We’ll make some runs tomorrow and see if we can crack the case.”
BO BUTNER, JIM BUTNER AUTO, BUTNER AUTO SALES CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 3 qualifier; fell on holeshot in semifinals to KB Racing teammate and No. 2 qualifier Greg Anderson): “If I had to lose to someone, it needs to be him. I’m happy with the weekend. We definitely had the fastest car and left a little on the table yet. I just have to do what I know to do, and that is not overthink. We made some last-minute changes and Greg (Anderson) waited in the burnout box. You can’t let anything get to you; you just have to go up there and do your job. It’s not over. We control our own destiny.”
JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 4 qualifier; fell in semifinals to eventual winner Tanner Gray): “My Summit Racing Chevy is a good car, we just lost a good race. You’re going to have that sometimes, and as far as the championship goes, it isn’t over until it’s over. We have lots of racing left. Today, we fell short of our goal, but none-the-less it was a decent day. I certainly had a car that could win, and that’s more important now than ever.”
CHRIS MCGAHA, HARLOW SAMMONS RACING, HARLOW SAMMONS OF ODESSA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier; fell first round because of foul – red light – to Kenny Delco): “It happens in this sport and it just did. I was going by him and I was thinking ‘no way.’ I’m 10th in points and I qualified good. It was a mistake and we move on. It’s definitely do or die from the 10th spot. We’ll make the best of it.”
JEG COUGHLIN JR., ELITE MOTORSPORTS, JEGS.COM ELITE PERFORMANCE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 6 qualifier; fell in quarterfinals to points leader Bo Butner): “We’ve had worse starts in the Countdown, and we’ve certainly had better so we will just move on to Reading, one of my favorite tracks on the tour, and keep up the fight. We came back after the first round, made some adjustments on the race car, and although we;’ve really made some ground up this week, without question, we must have done something to upset it there.”
DREW SKILLMAN, RAY SKILLMAN MOTORSPORTS, RAY SKILLMAN AUTO GROUP CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 7 qualifier; fell in quarterfinals to No. 2 qualifier Greg Anderson): “He busted our butt. We made a bad run; just got as little sideways. We’re going to stay here and test (Sept. 18) and keep pushing forward. We have the new engine in now and still don’t have a grasp on it. We’re going to learn more at the test, make as many runs as we can and be ready for Reading.”
ALEX LAUGHLIN, GAS MONKEY RACING, GAS MONKEY GARAGE/360 WRAPS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 8 qualifier; fell in first round to Elite Motorsports teammate Erica Enders): “The car is running great. We struggled a little bit in qualifying for a couple rounds. We didn’t miss anything major, but we did see some things we could improve upon. In the last session, in essentially the worst conditions of the weekend, we improved off of our fastest ET. Had we had that setup in the car, we would have qualified a lot better than eighth. I had to run Erica the first round; you never want to run your teammate, unless it’s in the final. We have picked up the rest of the Countdown. I was only going to run Dallas and maybe Ponoma, and now we plan to run all of them.”
ERICA ENDERS, MELLING PERFORMANCE/ ELITE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 9 qualifier; fell in quarterfinals to No. 1 qualifier Tanner Gray): “We definitely have a better race car. After I did a burnout that run, I cold hear that the motor was broken. I radioed to my guys that we have a broke motor. I looked at my team owner (Richard Freeman) and said ‘Do you want me to go?’ and he said ‘Send it.’ It’s disheartening, but at the same time it’s the first race of the Countdown and there’s a lot of racing left. I feel like we have the best team period and are always able to perform under pressure. We’ll test (Sept. 18) sand make them better and go to Reading with our heads held high. I’m up for the challenge.”
VINCENT NOBILE, MOUNTAIN VIEW RACING, MOUNTAIN VIEW TIRE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 11 qualifier; fell in first round to Elite Motorsports teammate Jeg Coughlin Jr. by two-thousandths of a second): “It definitely was not the weekend we wanted. We didn’t run good in qualifying, and you definitely don’t want to match up against your teammate in the first round. I went up there trying to be .000, but obviously wasn’t. If I would have be .57, I would have won. I’m disappointed right now, but it’s on to the next one. We’re a top-half team and have been on the bottom half. We have the people, we have the parts and we have all the goods to be in the top half. It’s really anyone’s race and it’s who applies it to the ground better.”
SHANE TUCKER, TUCKER RACING, AUZMET ARCHITECTURAL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 14 qualifier; fell in first round to points leader Bo Butner): “I was really happy with the strides we took this weekend with our engine program. I was happy we made him earn the win and not get a free ride. We knew he was going to be tough to beat. I’m excited to have Hot Wheels Car Care Products on board (as a sponsor). It’s such an iconic brand that was involved in NHRA back in the ‘70s. For them to be back in the sport is huge for us, and to be representing them is an honor for us. I’m going to take three weeks off and head back to Australia to see my family and go back to the dyno to see if we can find some more horsepower and catch these boys. We’ll be fresh and ready for the Dallas race and hopefully finish out the season.”