CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
DODGE NHRA NATIONALS
MAPLE GROVE RACEWAY IN READING, PENNSYLVANIA
POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
SUNDAY, SEPT. 16, 2018
An interview with Pro Stock winner VINCENT NOBILE, MOUNTAIN VIEW RACING, MOUNTAIN VIEW TIRE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 6 qualifier; third victory of the season and 13th of his Pro Stock career; second win at Maple Grove Raceway; moved to second in the standings):
THAT WASN’T A WALK IN THE PARK. LOOK WHO YOU BEAT.
“My team gave me a great race car and we put on four win lights. The whole Pro Stock class is tough; there’s not one easy round out there, especially when you get to second round. Every round you have to do the best you can and turn those win lights on.”
EVERYONE MISSED YOU IN THE COUNTDOWN LAST YEAR.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get to race this race last year, so I’m going back to back – 2016 we won this race and won again in 2018. My whole family is here and it’s great to see my brother-in-law (Hector Arana Jr. in Pro Stock Motorcycle) win.”
AT WHAT POINT DID YOU THINK MAYBE IT’S ME?
“Probably around 1,200 feet in the final round. I wasn’t counting my chickens too early. What a great day. I’ve learned my lesson that if you look over too soon you give yourself some bad luck, so I try not to do that. Definitely a great start.”
YOU HAD A SOLID CAR ALL WEKEEND AND BETTER THAN THE LAST FEW WEEKS OF THE REGULAR SEASON. WHAT CHANGED?
“We finally figured out what one of our issues was and I think we’re back. Certainly, the other teams have gotten better, not saying that we were better than the other teams at the beginning, but we were kind of behind the eight ball for a while. All the teams are pretty equal, there’s so much parity in the class and you go from race to race and it’s typically a new winner from race to race. Whoever makes the better call will win the race. Anybody can go No. 1, it’s just a matter of who has their act together.”
TOP FUEL:
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (No. 11 qualifier; fell in first round): “The big thing is we locked into the Countdown in the No. 8 position and we were going for a win this weekend in Reading. That’s the first race of the season and we want to start off right. But it just wasn’t our weekend. We blew the tires off the thing and we’re struggling. We’re really trying to figure it out, but all my guys are right there with me. I know they are putting their heart into this car, trying to figure it out. Our hard work hasn’t paid off yet, but I know there are five left and I know we can turn the corner and we’re going after wins and want to move up that ladder. I have the greatest group around me and we’ll head on to the next one and see what we can do there.”
FUNNY CAR:
COURTNEY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; fell in first round): “We were able to gather a few points throughout qualifying and a few more coming into race day in the No. 1 position. Our team was ready to go. Unfortunately, our car wasn’t happy down track. I ended up trying to pedal it to try to get it down there and it wouldn’t hook up and my opponent went on for the win. That’s not the run that we were obviously looking to make. We are a little disappointed in ourselves, but we’ll take our focus to the next race. This is only Race 1 of the Countdown to the Championship. We’ve fallen just a couple spots, but we know we’re still in a spot where we can make things happen and turn things around at the next race. We’re staying positive and turning our focus to St. Louis to really make it happen.”
JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK COOLANT & MOTOR OIL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 7 qualifier; fell in second round): “In qualifying we made four runs in a row. We had been really struggling to get four or five runs in a row. We did it at Denver, but that was a complete different combination that we ran years ago. So to come here and make four good qualifying runs and win first round over a champion (Matt) Hagan, it makes you feel good. What I have to look at is the consistency. Even when I got beat by (Tim) Wilkerson, my car still went A to B, and that was six runs. I haven’t done that in a while.”
ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 11 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “Obviously, this is not the way we wanted to end the weekend. I had been cutting good lights all day and was just too aggressive. This Auto Club Camaro is running great, and we would have had that round win and probably won the race. Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham figured this car out from qualifying. Turning it around like that gives me all the more confidence in this Auto Club team. I believe we have the car to beat. We’re ready to head to St. Louis, we moved up in the points and we’re going to keep it going. I was really hoping to get this End Distracted Driving Auto Club Camaro into the winner’s circle this weekend. That didn’t happen but the response from the fans has been amazing. I got so many comments about the car this weekend and had fans telling me it was a great campaign. Hopefully next weekend we get the job done.”
PRO STOCK:
DREW SKILLMAN, RAY SKILLMAN MOTORSPORTS, RAY SKILLMAN AUTO GROUP CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 4 qualifier; fell in final): “We had a great weekend, finally. From four consistent qualifying runs to end up No. 4 to reaching our first final round of the season, it was a positive weekend and we grabbed a bunch of points. I’ve said before that anybody can win in this class; the competition is so close. It often comes down to who cuts the better light, and that’s what happened in the finals. We’ll look to repeat the efforts at St. Louis next week.”
TANNER GRAY, GRAY MOTORSPORTS, GRAY MOTORSPORTS VALVOLINE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “We had a glitch in the semifinal race, which obviously cost us. In this class, all the cars are so even that even the slightest mechanical or tire spinning will cost you the race. Overall, a good weekend. We had four consistent qualifying runs and kept the points lead moving to the second of the six races in the Countdown. We’ll take aim at another win at St. Louis.”
ERICA ENDERS, ELITE MOTORSPORTS, MELLING PERFORMANCE/ELITE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 3 qualifier; fell in second round): “I definitely have not had my best driving year by any means, I’ve struggled personally, and it’s definitely shown on the track. But that’s what we’ve been known for at Elite is our ability to leave and people will come against us and bring their a-game and that can be aggravating because they’ll go into the next round and drop a .070 but against us it’s a .00-something, which is a compliment.”
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 7 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “We found a way to get by two rounds, and it could have been a really bloody day. Hopefully, when this deal is all over, I’ll look back at this as the day we didn’t have the horse but were still able to scrape and claw and gain those valuable points. First-round losses will kill you, and I could very easily have had a first- or second- round loss today and didn’t. Luckily, we salvaged as many points as we possibly could. We kept the loss to a minimum, and we have time to go fix it.”
BO BUTNER, BUTNER AUTO, JIM BUTNER AUTO SALES CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier; fell in second round): “It’s a shame I didn’t do my job, but the good thing is that the car seems like it’s right back to what we had last year and the beginning of this year. I have a lot to look forward to, and I wish we could just keep on going tomorrow. It’s going to be tough in the Countdown, though. There are a lot of good cars, but I like our chances.”
JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 8 qualifier; fell in second round): “The good news is that today my Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro was better than it’s been all weekend, and in that last round there I had the best light I’ve had all weekend – unfortunately, though, I didn’t do a good enough job. We improved from qualifying, and that makes us feel a little better going to the next race, but next weekend we’re going to be working hard for a better outcome.”