Austin Prock: 'I felt pretty confident going that we were going to have the car to beat'
Paul Lee: 'It’s going to be great just to see our friends and the fans'
Jack Beckman: 'I don’t know if anyone wants to get back more than me'
Tim Wilkerson: 'I don’t think they’re ready for my attitude. It’s gonna be fun'
Kenny Delco: 'We were fast, we qualified fourth at Pomona and Phoenix'
Steve Torrence: 'You’ve got to come out and swing for every one of ’em'
Cristian Cuadra: 'I think I’m doing well, but I have a lot of room to improve'
Tommy Johnson Jr.: 'I’ve not wanted to win a championship more than this year'
Brittany Force: 'We’re ready for all this to be over so we get back to what we love'
Robert Hight: 'I can’t wait to get back and try to defend our championship'
Alex Laughlin: 'All we have to do is shove the car back in the trailer, and we are ready to go racing'
Shawn Langdon: 'I’m trying to stay as fresh as I can so we can be ready to go'
Chris McGaha: 'We’ve come up with some new ideas and we’ve beaten on some things'
J.R. Todd: 'I have all the confidence that we will be in contention when it counts'
Clay Millican: 'I can’t wait to stomp on that loud pedal ... it’s been way too long'
Bob Tasca III: 'Trust me, this Motorcraft car is going to have its day in the sun'
Antron Brown: 'I’ve been doing everything I can; I’m gonna come back hungry and ready'
Jason Line: 'It doesn’t matter what track we start with, the cars will all be ready to go when we get the call'
Fernando Cuadra Jr: 'We’re applying many of the things we learned from the first two races'
John Force: 'I’ll be ready. I know the car. I could drive it with my eyes closed'
Rahn Tobler maps out plans and goals for the NAPA Auto Parts Funny Car team
Leah Pruett: 'This is not the time to test or play; it’s time to run with what we know'
Ron Capps: 'It’s going to feel crazy the first time any of us steps on the gas for the first time'
Doug Kalitta: 'We’re all just really hungry and ready to make it happen'
Bo Butner: 'I feel like when we all come back racing we’ll be stronger than ever!'
Jeg Coughlin Jr: 'It’s time to go. Every round will be as important as the last'
Matt Hartford: 'We have a car that can run for the championship—bar none'
Alexis DeJoria: 'I just hope that everybody makes it back to the track safely'
Justin Ashley: 'Having a break like this really puts things in perspective'
Erica Enders: 'Our great start proves the organization’s hard work is paying off'
Clay Millican: 'I can’t wait to stomp on that loud pedal ... it’s been way too long'
CLAY MILLICAN | Parts Plus dragster
Current points position: 9th | Best season e.t. to date: 3.731
Early-season report card: The Mike Kloeber-tuned Parts Plus dragster was solidly in the 3.70s in both Pomona and Phoenix, qualifying, respectively, eighth and 10th with bests of 3.750 and 3.771 and locked down their first round-win of the season in Pomona with a season-best 3.731 to defeat Terry McMillen. Millican left on Brittany Force by four-hundredths in round two but still got beat to the stripe. In Phoenix, Millican clocked a solid 3.75 but got beat by Shawn Langdon’s better 3.71 in round one.
Looking back: “The biggest thing we had concerns with coming into the season was clutch discs, which is normal for everybody but it’s especially different for small teams like ours because we’re not able to buy a lot, so that means we swap clutch discs quite often. It was clutch discs that screwed us in the Countdown last year –- some of that was definitely our fault -– so we were trying to recover from what we found at the tail end of the Countdown. Our goal was to make the thing go down the racetrack and not necessarily trying to rip off .60s. We were pretty much on target for doing what we want to do, which was get our feet back under us with the clutch discs that we’re going to be working with.”
Looking ahead: “Less qualifying sessions means we will burn up fewer parts and it also means that it is of the utmost importance that you’ve got a tune-up that’ll go down the racetrack to get you in because you’re not going to have any throw-away runs. A lot of times we would use one qualifying pass as a test session and we will not be able to do that anymore, so you’d better be prepared to get yourself qualified in fewer runs.”
Shop talk: “No one is working at our shop; they’ve all been home since a week after Gainesville was postponed. We were ready to go at Gainesville. Everything that we have is ready to go. In the meantime, [wife] Donna and I are doing lots of construction work and clean up at my parents’ house/grocery store because we have to sell that place. I’m not a fan of construction work or digging ditches at all, but it’s been keeping us busy.”
The final word: “I can’t wait to stomp on that loud pedal. It’s definitely something that I am very, very much looking forward to because it’s been way too long. We’ll be jumping right into the fire because I don’t know if there will be any testing –- certainly not for us anyway -– so I know I’ll have butterflies like I always do before the first run of a season. I’m not afraid to admit it, but it’s always like, ‘Holy crap, I haven’t ridden this roller coaster in a long time,’ and it ain’t gonna be a test lap where it’s like, ‘OK, go to 330 [feet] and shut it off’; it’s gonna be ‘Send it!’”