CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
TOYOTA NHRA SONOMA NATIONALS
SONOMA RACEWAY AT SONOMA, CALIFORNIA
POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
SUNDAY, JULY 30, 2017
An interview with Pro Stock winner TANNER GRAY, GRAY MOTORSPORTS, GRAY MOTORSPORTS VALVOLINE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier; third victory of rookie season; also defeated Bo Butner in Las Vegas final for first Pro Stock victory):
Q: WHAT HAS BEEN THE SECRET FOR YOU IN YOUR ROOKIE YEAR?
TANNER GRAY: Just a lot of practice. I have a great group of guys. I want to dedicate this (Wally) to my aunt (Terry Chandler), who we lost a couple of weeks ago. I just want to thank Gray Motorsports, Valvoline, Chevy, and just everybody who makes this thing happen.
Q: DID YOU THINK YOU COULD WIN THREE TIMES AS COMPETITIVE AS PRO STOCK IS?
TANNER GRAY: I hold myself to a high standard and I’m pretty competitive, so I had hoped for it. But this is kind of surreal to come out here and be able to do that. There have been nine different winners already, so that shows how competitive this class is.
Q: AT WHAT POINT TODAY DID YOU START THINKING THIS IS MY DAY AGAIN?
TANNER GRAY: When I showed up. I never show up at a racetrack not thinking it’s not my day. My dad has given me a great race car, even when it doesn’t show during qualifying I know they have my back on race day. I’m just happy to be (in the winner’s circle).
TOP FUEL:
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (No. 2 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “You know, coming off our day yesterday where we didn’t get down there once and lost Q4 … we blew the tires off of it right off the hit, didn’t even get past the Christmas Tree. To have a day like that and then have low E.T. of the session, I thought we were going to carry it all through the day. But we made a semifinal appearance, which is what we did last weekend, too. So that’s pretty good, but the plan for next week in Seattle is to take it off the trailer and end up in the winner’s circle.”
FUNNY CAR:
COURTNEY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 4 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “It was a big turnaround weekend going to the semifinals for our Advance Auto Chevrolet team. I think we definitely learned some stuff about our cars this weekend. To go out there and qualify in the number four spot, have a little bit of consistency, run a 3.90 in the first round … that was a killer run for us. In the second round, I had to pedal my car to get around him and get that win. It’s pretty exciting. The car wasn’t performing quite like we wanted and we still managed to hang on and get the win. We had the early part figured out, that we didn’t in the second round, but down track it started spinning the tires. So we fixed one problem and it kind of created another. But I am really excited about our performance this weekend and I feel good about coming out of the middle part of the western swing by going a few rounds and picking up some more points. Really thrilled because we had Big Machine Records on board this weekend and we were really excited to be able to show them what we do out here. To have a successful weekend, it wasn’t a bad time out here in Sonoma. Obviously, I wished we had gotten the win and I thought we had the car that could do it this weekend but (Tim) Wilkerson got around us. Now we get back after it out in Seattle, a track where I have won at in the past. I got my rookie win there. So looking forward to ending the western swing on a high note. Excited to get to a track that we are familiar with and see what we can do.”
JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK COOLANT & MOTOR OIL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier; fell in quarterfinals): “We learned how to get fast. It’s showing that we found something. What that is, I don’t know yet. I had a fast car, and it was pretty cool (to make first-ever pass of more than 337 mph), but let’s see what we can do with it. I’m starting my career all over again, and it’s a brand new ballgame. I ain’t quitting. Just have good days and bad days, and just have to make them all good days.”
ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB OF CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; fell in quarterfinals): ”In the first round, it was pretty amazing with low E.T. and speed and I really thought we were on our way again. But we just missed the starting line the second run. It just wasn’t anywhere near as good as we thought it was and it just got the tire hot and smoked the tires. If we had backed it off enough we would still be out there. We just have to quit beating ourselves. We have to race better. We have the performance. All our Funny Cars and our dragster, we have everything we need, we just have to manage it better and race smarter. You can see our performance in qualifying and the big runs that we have put up … we are there. We just have to do a better job. The good thing is that we only have a couple of days to shake this off, get to Seattle, and try to get back in the winner’s circle.”
PRO STOCK:
BO BUTNER, BUTNER AUTO SALES, JIM BUTNER AUTO CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier; fell in final): “It was a very good race, and I can’t complain. The car keeps getting better, and I feel more confident every time I go up. I’ve been racing a long time and have raced a lot of different cars – you just have to tell yourself that this isn’t rocket science. You have to go up there and do your job. It’s been working. Going into the final, I thought I was going to win. Especially when we had lane choice. I thought if we could be .020 [on the tree], we could win the race. But they’re doing a very good job over there. If Tanner keeps his head clear, he’s going to be tough to beat.”
DREW SKILLMAN, RAY SKILLMAN RACING, RAY SKILLMAN AUTO GROUP CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “I knew what I had to do. We were struggling a little bit on the TPS on the throttle body, where it is on the Chevrolet Camaro. We actually fixed it that last round, but then it picked up a ton of power. So, just bad luck. Bad luck but Tanner (Gray) has a great chance of winning this race because his Camaro has been fast all weekend and he has a shot to win this deal. One of our goals was to try and get the sweep. We won Denver and when you win there you want to win the next one. Our sweep chances are over but we are definitely going to come back and win at Seattle.”
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 3 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “I guess in retrospect what happened in second round is that I lost lane choice. Evidently, there is more of a difference in the lanes than we thought. It just completely smoked the tires there in the semifinals. Lane is what got me and the reason I was in that lane is because I got outrun by three-thousandths. Could have done a million things different in the second round to pick up three-thousandths, and we didn’t. Unfortunate, but the whole problem started in second round. We ran a great first round, but we gave up too much second round, and gave up lane choice.”
JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 4 qualifier; fell in quarterfinals): “We struggled with my blue Summit Racing Camaro and it hasn’t been happy. We don’t have quite the handle on the set-up that we once did. So it’s a work in progress. There are some things that have changed. We have a new compound tire. It’s a really good tire, but it’s just kind of throwing our car for a loop right now. We have to work on it and we will make it better.”
VINCENT NOBILE, MOUNTAIN VIEW RACING, MOUNTAIN VIEW TIRE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 6 qualifier; fell in quarterfinals): “I think we have a little bit of another issue. Our set-up is really good right now, even with that new tire. I think we have some engine issues. Not necessarily horsepower, it’s just something we are doing with the tune-up. We just seem to struggle and we need to get a handle on it or just plain and simple, we are just not going to win races. You can’t win races when you have the engine misfire in low gear every other run. Little frustrating but off to Seattle we go.”
CHRIS MCGAHA, HARLOW SAMMONS RACING, HARLOW SAMMONS OF ODESSA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 7 qualifier; fell in quarterfinals): “The tire is hard to run. We are having to re-learn some things but we are making progress. We made a good run in a bad lane to get beat. We didn’t have much hope with a .007 light in the other lane (Bo Butner), and a fast car, but we are making headway with the tire considering that we haven’t done anything but just started running it. We didn’t go test or anything.”
JEG COUGHLIN JR., ELITE MOTORSPORTS, JEGS.COM ELITE PERFORMANCE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 9 qualifier; fell in quarterfinals): “We were kind of fortunate to get through the first round quite frankly. The power and the numbers … we are trying to work them in our favor, but Erica’s (Enders-Stevens) got nipped the first round. Her car ran real well so we were pulling a little data off of that car going into round two. We definitely ran better and you won’t hear too many people say that they were too conservative, but we were way too conservative there in round two. As it turned out, we just didn’t have enough snuff to get to the finish line first. (Drew) Skillman has been red hot lately and his Camaro has been flying and we are going to do what we can in the next 100-something hours that we have before we make our first runs at Seattle.”
ERICA ENDERS, ELITE MOTORSPORTS, MELLING PERFORMANCE/ELITE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 15 qualifier; fell in first round): “That was definitely a huge step in the right direction considering we basically got zero data from four really off-pace qualifying passes. I’m really so proud of my team for hanging in there and persevering even when there was barely a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel (Saturday). Had we made that run right there in the fourth qualifying session we would have positioned ourselves much differently on the ladder. Had that been the case, I think today’s turnout could have been the winner’s circle but as my team owner says, ‘If crickets had pistols, the birds wouldn’t mess with them.’ No one usually cares about the ‘woulda, shoulda, coulda,’ but in this case I do because, in my opinion, I have the smartest guys in the business working on my car. We have literally been stumped for a handful of races but what just happened is a huge step in the right direction and definitely gives us some hope heading up to Seattle. Now we have something to work with.”