CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
TOYOTA NHRA SONOMA NATIONALS
SONOMA RACEWAY IN SONOMA, CALIFORNIA
POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018

An interview with Funny Car winner ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 11 qualifier; second victory of season and second at Sonoma Raceway; reigning Funny Car champion):

THIS IS PROBABLY A SPECIAL WIN FOR YOU – SECOND AT SONOMA AND FIRST IN 10 YEARS?
“It is. I grew up north of here and I’ve been to every single one of the national events at Sonoma Raceway either as a fan, a crew member and now as a driver. It’s hard to believe that a guy from a small town in Northern California can win here.”

THAT WAS QUITE A FINAL ROUND WITH RON CAPPS
“He’s a great competitor. Yesterday in qualifying, he had the best car here. When you have (crew chief) Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham, those guys stepped it up. It didn’t bother them that we were No. 11 (qualifier). We came up against tough competitors all day long and got the win light. This is the second race on the Swing and the Chevys are sweeping it right now.”

YOU ARE TIED FOR THIRD ON THE ALL-TIME FUNNY CAR WIN LIST. HOW ABOUT THAT?
“It’s pretty amazing, but we’re all chasing someone who we’ll never catch and that’s my boss John Force. He had a great day of racing and it was great to see him get a win in Denver. This is a big win for us.”

An interview with Pro Stock winner JEG COUGHLIN JR., ELITE MOTORSPORTS, JEGS.COM/ELITE PERFORMANCE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier; third victory of the season and 61st in Pro Stock; has 80 career wins in seven classes):

THIS LOOKS TO BE AN IMPORTANT WIN FOR YOU. IS IT?
“Definitely. We’ve been thrashing for a couple years. We had a little spell (teammate) Erica (Enders) and I. She was coming off two Pro Stock championships and we felt a little sting. Now we have a great group of people, have great chemistry and enjoy racing together. We got a breakthrough win at Chicago and have been rolling since.”

YOU HAD THREE KB RACING CARS IN THE SEMIFINALS. DID YOU THINK THEY HAD YOU SURROUNDED?
“They’ve been doing a great job. We stuck to our game and had a little help from our competitors. I was driving OK and wound up here in the winner’s circle. It feels great to win here at Sonoma. It’s been a couple of years. We’re proud to win this race today for the whole Elite team.”

TOP FUEL:
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK COOLANT & MOTOR OIL MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (No. 5 qualifier; fell in second round): “We’ve been really struggling in the first round, but today we went right down there. Beautiful run and then, you know, we struggled in the second round (against Tony Schumacher). Went down there and had a lot of holes out. The thing is, we have to take these small victories when they come and just try to get ready for the Countdown. We’ve got three races left and we still have a lot to figure out on this car, but I know this PEAK team will be ready for it.”

FUNNY CAR:
COURTNEY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; fell in first round): “I definitely had my hands full on that run. It dropped a cylinder. I tried to hold it off the center line as best I could and stay in the throttle to see if we hopefully could get around him but he (Del Worsham) had a great run. I think it was the best he had all weekend and we weren’t there to be able to pass him. I didn’t do my job as a driver. I was late on the tree. I think my foot tried to leave on the starting line about three times and as soon as that tree came down, I was already late. I feel bad for my team for the job that I did and then when the car dropped a hole we just couldn’t get around him down there.”

JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK COOLANT & MOTOR OIL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 9 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “I thought I had him (Ron Capps). He’s got a real good race car and they know how to make that five-disc (clutch) work really good. So, we just give ‘em credit and move on.”

PRO STOCK:
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “We lost by one stinkin’ thousandth. My Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro was a great race car all weekend long, but Sunday has been our Achilles’ heel this year, and we didn’t do a good job of staying fast. It’s a work in progress still on Sunday, but overall, the performance of our cars is better. That’s been really great. We’ll keep trying, and we know we’ll figure it out before the Countdown. We’re very happy we get to go to Seattle next weekend because that’s how you get better. You keep working.”

JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “We were really happy in qualifying, and our cars are continuing to get better. We didn’t go as far as we would have liked today, but we’re certainly getting closer to where we need to be for the Countdown. All in all, not a bad weekend, and there were more bright spots than negative. We came into Sunday with cars that could win, and that’s an important piece of the puzzle. It’s a start. Now we build on that.”

BO BUTNER, BUTNER AUTO, JIM BUTNER AUTO SALES CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 4 qualifier; fell in first round): “It just would not go from third to fourth gear. That’s never happened to me in one of these cars. We found nothing wrong in the transmission. It just didn’t go. We had a good car in qualifying, so that’s a good thing.”

TANNER GRAY, GRAY MOTORSPORTS, VALVOLINE GRAY MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 6 qualifier; fell in second round): “We definitely had consistent, good runs today. It just didn’t fall our way today. I think everybody did a good job all weekend preparing the car. As disappointed as I am that we lost that race, I’m excited to see what we can do in Seattle.”

ERICA ENDERS, ELITE MOTORSPORTS, MELLING PERFORMANCE/ELITE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 7 qualifier; fell in second round): “It was a really great race with Jason Line. I got left on and got outrun, so I guess he deserved that win. The good news is we ran right with Jason and as a driver that’s all you can ask for. We’ll take our Melling Performance Chevy to Seattle, where we’ve had some success.”

DREW SKILLMAN, RAY SKILLMAN MOTORSPORTS, RAY SKILLMAN AUTO GROUP CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 8 qualifier; fell in second round): “We had a consistent car throughout the weekend, which is good in one sense. We just didn’t get the job done on race day. We’ve had success in Seattle in the past, so we’ll see if we can get the car and driver to be consistent again.”

CHRIS MCGAHA, HARLOW SAMMONS RACING, HARLOW SAMMONS OF ODESSA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 9 qualifier; fell in first round): “It’s that bad. You wish you could go home and work on it. It’s to the point where we don’t even know what to work on. We’re running out of options and we’re looking for something to fall off. Then we can say, ‘Hey, that’s broke’ and we would know what to do. We’re looking high and low. Four engines later and it’s still not running right, so something else is wrong. We’ve gone to all the obvious stuff that has slowed us down before, but that’s not it.”

VINCENT NOBILE, MOUNTAIN VIEW RACING, MOUNTAIN VIEW TIRE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 11 qualifier; fell in first round): “The wind in the right lane comes up and over the wall and pushes the car. It doesn’t even affect the left lane. I had the wheel turned as far left as I could turn it and it would not come back in the groove. Pro Stock cars don’t have downforce and we do everything we can to take even more downforce away from them because the better your aero the faster you’re going to go. When the wind pushes you out of the groove, it’s a whole new ballgame.”

MATT HARTFORD, HARTFORD RACING, TOTAL SEAL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 10 qualifier; fell in first round): “(Regarding wind gust) I got down there in fourth gear and got near the wall, I had the steering wheel as cranked as far as I could humanly get it and the next thing I did was push in the clutch and tell the boys I’d rather save the car for Seattle. We need to make some changes because I know we can run better than we did.”

ALEX LAUGHLIN, GAS MONKEY ENERGY, HAVOLINE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 13 qualifier; fell in second round): “I had a lot of confidence coming out of Denver because the car was running good, but that’s is a different racetrack. I miss two qualifying rounds because of engine problems. I showed up to first round with my third motor of the weekend and not time for a good tune-up. I tried to put all the bad luck of the weekend behind me and just do my best. Got the round win, and even in the second round I left first against Jeg (Coughlin Jr.) my all-time Pro Stock hero. The car ran pretty well. I don’t have any complaints.”