CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
NHRA TOYOTA NATIONALS
THE STRIP AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
OCT. 30, 2016
An interview with Funny Car winner JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS PEAK CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 3 qualifier):
Q: HOW DO YOU KEEP DOING THIS?
JOHN FORCE: “Right here is the reason, my little girl Courtney. She grew up in this, she knows the drill and is super competitive and a winner. She knows I love her. All the sponsors love her. Chevrolet loves her. They all love us here at John Force Racing. We’re fighting the fight. This trophy is going to someone really special, who fought the fight and won. It’s a young kid and that’s all I have to say about it. Go, daddy.”
An interview with Pro Stock winner SHANE GRAY, GRAY MOTORSPORTS, VALVOLINE/NOVASERVIES CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 4 qualifier):
Q: HOW SWEET IS THIS TO WIN IN YOUR NEXT-TO-LAST RACE?
SHANE GRAY: “I can’t believe it. This is almost as good as winning Indy in ’14. My teammate (Drew Skillman) in the final. Awesome. It’s great. I want to thank NHRA, Mello Yello for all the good years and the good racing and the just good support. To all my guys at Gray Motorsports in the engine shop, a wonderful bunch of guys, and the whole team, this is for you. We have a dream team over there and I can’t wait for my son to step into this car.”
TOP FUEL:
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (No. 7 qualifier; fell in second round): “It’s the final race of the season and to be able to end on a good note is what we want to do. We want to end strong. I am proud of the success that we have had in our 2016 season. We had some wins and some killer runs and we want to end at Pomona with a win and take it home.”
FUNNY CAR:
COURTNEY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, TRAXXAS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 8 qualifier; fell in final round): “I think we had a great race day with our Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro. Honestly, we turned this car around when it counted for race day and to have three consistent 3.88 passes is pretty unbelievable. So I am really proud of my guys. And to go into the final and run a 3.90 and a really close race with dad, you know we gave it all we got. He was able to get around me for the win and it was definitely a fun race and a close one. Having an all-Force and all Chevy final was great and definitely what we need to do. I hope to continue doing it in Pomona and all of next season. So just happy with where we were at today and I think we definitely made some moves in the points.”
ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier; fell in first round): “I was focused on pedaling my Camaro while Cruz (Pedregon) was doing that wheel stand. The only thing I was thinking about was I hoped he crossed the center line. I am really glad he is safe and that is a tribute to all our safety equipment. That was a tough round for us and we are going to focus on going to Pomona to win the last race of the season.”
PRO STOCK:
DREW SKILLMAN, RAY SKILLMAN RACING, RAY SKILLMAN AUTO CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier, fell in final round): “It was a win-win for us (teammate Shane Gray winning). I would have liked to be on the other end, but it worked out. We’ going to keep chipping away. We still have one more so we’re not done.”
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “We just have to make our own drama, I guess. The good news is that some of the pressure is off and we still had a good team day and it looks like KB Racing has a handle on the championship. We just don’t know who is going to win it yet. We still have work to do and Jason (Line) is obviously in better position than me. He can’t lose first place as long as he qualifies at Pomona. If he goes to Pomona and qualifies then he is going to be No. 1 or 2. I am going to have to find a way to be either 1, 2 or 3. There are a few spots still open for me and I can go up or I can go down. Jason can stay the same or he can go down. Shane Gray can go up. There are things still to be decided but with our competitor Vince Nobile going out here that definitely helped us and made it so that we can go to Pomona and qualify then KB Racing is going to be the world champs. That is the first thing and the most important thing. As it looks it still should come down to Jason and I fighting it out for No. 1 and 2. I dropped a chance to gain on him here and possibly take the lead to Pomona but that is OK. It’s obviously meant to be to come down to the final race and the last round that we run.”
JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 6 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “(In the semifinal round) It didn’t make it 10 feet. I don’t know; the lane was not what we thought it was, I guess. It just missed somehow. I stayed in it way too long because I had this crazy urge to win. It was frustrating. We’ve struggled lately and somehow we still come out of here with the (point) lead. Pomona is going to be interesting. I have to go to Pomona and do better than Greg (Anderson). It’s going to be fun because one of us is going to win the championship. It’s just crazy we’re dragging it out like this. Maybe it will come down to the final round again.”
BO BUTNER, BUTNER AUTO SALES, JIM BUTNER CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier, fell in second round): “It’s going to be pretty tight for third (place in the Countdown). Of course, we have to go more rounds than Shane (Gray) and Vincent (Nobile), but everybody is so close now. Shane and I had a good race there, but he just out ran us by a hair. We are still happy and still waiting for the win. One more.”
VINCENT NOBILE, MOUNTAIN VIEW RACING, MOUNTAIN VIEW TIRE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 7 qualifier; fell in second round): “(Goal for Pomona) Go there to win. And keep our heads up. It’s all we can do now. We have a lot of work to do and that is for sure. We just learned something else here on this last run, which kind of opened our eyes to something. We have got some work to do, but that is a good thing and it’s only going to get better from here.”
CHRIS MCGAHA, HARLOW SAMMONS RACING, HARLOW SAMMONS OF ODESSA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 8 qualifier, fell in second round): “We’re already in test mode, I guess, for next year. We went back to where we were at the start of the year. We thought we were better at the first of the year. We were like, ‘We haven’t improved. We haven’t improved,’ so we went back that way. Obviously, we had improved better than we thought.”
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