CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
DENSO SPARK PLUGS NHRA FOUR-WIDE NATIONALS
THE STRIP AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 2018
An interview with Pro Stock winner VINCENT NOBILE, ELITE MOTORSPORTS, MOUNTAINVIEW TIRE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 8 qualifier; earned first victory since Maple Grove Raceway in October 2016; 11th career win in 168 races):
WHAT DOES THIS WIN MEAN TO YOU AFTER MORE THAN A YEAR TRYING?
“It’s a big boost to our confidence. We have a great team, great car, and I can’t thank the Mitzos family enough for giving me this opportunity. I think this is my fifth or sixth final here in Vegas. Finally got it done.”
WHAT POINT DURING THE DAY DID YOU THINK, ‘OK, MAYBE’?
“After our third motor change I thought maybe this is our day. Obviously, it was. We struggled during qualifying. We had some hurt motors, but that one we put in in the semifinals was healthy.”
YOU HAVE TO HAVE MENTAL TOUGHNESS
“It definitely paid off. We worked our butts off this weekend. That was our third engine, which is three too many for a Pro Stock car. On Friday, we struggled in qualifying. Unbeknownst to us, our motor was being hurt. We didn’t break anything; it was just wearing itself out. Then we put in a second bullet and that thing was even more of a turd. It came right off the dyno. Finally, after the first round we put in our backup backup, and obviously that’s the one that should have been in there to begin with.”
YOU’RE IN LANE 4, CAN YOU SEE YOUR COMPETITORS?
“I looked over and was pretty sure I had the guy in the lane next to me but I didn’t know what was going over (across the track). Then my lights started blinking.”
TOP FUEL:
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 3 qualifier; fell in first round): “It’s tough. Our team is looking for its first win of the season and it would have been great to accomplish that here at the inaugural Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals. It would have been cool to be the first Top Fuel team to do that. We had some good qualifying passes and we ended up No. 3. We went up there in Lane 2 and it blew the tires off the Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster and I tried to pedal it. There were too many cars out in front of me so we had to let it go. We will regroup and head to Houston in another week.”
FUNNY CAR:
COURTNEY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; finished third in final round): “It was a great day for our Advance Auto Parts team with Carquest onboard and we got this Chevrolet Camaro all the way to the last quad of the day. We picked up a lot of points and basically made it all the way to the semifinals. This was a great outing for the first Four-Wide in Las Vegas. We had a good race car that qualified No. 1. We dropped a hole in the second round today and that slowed us down which we gave up lane choice in the final quad. We dropped a hole in the final and I think we will get that corrected before we get to Houston. This is a great team and I think overall we had a great weekend.”
ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier; fell in first round): “That wasn’t the way we wanted to start our race day. We had some troubles throughout qualifying. We started strong with a great first run and then couldn’t find consistency. This Auto Club team will get it figured out. I feel good about our chances to get some momentum for Houston and the next four-wide in Charlotte. The crowd the last two days here in Las Vegas was amazing. I have a lot of confidence in this Auto Club team.”
JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK COOLANT & MOTOR OIL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 11 qualifier; finished third in semifinals on holeshot): “Bottom line we are finding our problems. We didn’t get the wins in Top Fuel or Funny Car, but Courtney was close. I feel confident with this team. It was great to have Boss Shop on this PEAK Camaro this weekend. Bruton Smith had a great crowd our here all weekend and we put on a good show for the fans. I am going to get with my team and we will do some testing tomorrow. For all my sponsors from Auto Club to Chevrolet to Monster to PEAK and Advance Auto Parts we are going to keep fighting.”
PRO STOCK:
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “We got off to a decent start – it wasn’t a great start first round, but it was good enough. We just made the wrong decision second round and blew the tires off. I wish I had an excuse, because it was our race to win. But we just didn’t make the right call today. In this room, there is no room for error, and we made a mistake. But overall, a great weekend for KB Racing, two cars in the DENSO Four-Wide Nationals final, we got that cool K&N Horsepower Challenge trophy yesterday, we were No. 1 qualifier. I can’t wait to get to Houston and get back on track.”
DERIC KRAMER, KRAMER RACING, AMERICAN ETHANOL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier; finished second in final round): “We’ve got a long way to improve to go up and a long way for somebody to improve to catch us. I don’t know if it’s where we want to be, but it’s a pretty good spot. We can keep trying stuff to improve.”
BO BUTNER, JIM BUTNER AUTO, JIM BUTNER AUTO GROUP CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 3 qualifier; finished third in final round): “Today, even with the outcome as it was, we were blessed and very, very fortunate. We shouldn’t have won first round. But you don’t ever know with this crazy racing. The next round I thought we were better, but we just didn’t run up to par from qualifying any run in my eyes, but I think we got better and learned. But when you get to a final round in four-wide, you’re not just beating one – you’ve got to beat three people to win. I was gun-shy after what happened to me in the K&N Challenge final, so I made some adjustments. But we’re here in Vegas, I should have gambled. Still, we had a good day. Deric Kramer did good, the KB Racing guys were great, and they never quit trying.”
JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 6 qualifier; fell in first round): “”I just made a mistake, and you cannot make a mistake if you want to win. There are just too many fast cars and really good race teams out here. But we’re going in the right direction with the blue Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro, and I remain hopeful.”
TANNER GRAY, GRAY MOTORSPORTS, VALVOLINE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 7 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “We didn’t have the weekend we wanted here in Vegas but I’m still real proud of my guys. They did a great job with the car. It’s not easy having to run K&N Challenge and the Four-Wide Nationals in the same weekend We’ll do some more testing before the next event and give it our best shot in Houston.”
SHANE GRAY, GRAY MOTORSPORTS, GRAY TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 10 qualifier; fell in first round): “It was fun to get back in the car and race again, especially with it being four-wide and racing with Tanner (Gray). Vegas is a neat track that holds some good memories for Gray Motorsports. I was just out there having fun.”
DREW SKILLMAN, RAY SKILLMAN MOTORSPORTS, RAY SKILLMAN AUTO GROUP CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 11 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “We didn’t qualify as well as we thought we should have or wanted to, but we had a strong car on race day. It just wasn’t enough to get to the finals in this event. We’re getting good data on these runs and we’ll be back at it for Houston.”
MATT HARTFORD, HARTFORD RACING, TOTAL SEAL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 12 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “We’re feeling really good, I think we should have run better in Phoenix. I think we have a car that can go to the front. We ran a tire that was a little bit past its life cycle in Phoenix, so, we made a bad decision there, totally our fault.”