Baytown: Larry Dixon final summary

Dixon Posts Semifinal Finish At Houston

BAYTOWN, Texas (April 18, 2004) -- Two-time consecutive NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon and the Miller Lite team continued going rounds on race day, posting a semifinal finish at Houston Raceway Park on Sunday.

The 33-time NHRA event winner defeated Brady Kalivoda and Tony Schumacher, before falling to Clay Millican in the Top Fuel semifinals.

Dixon raced to a performance of 4.609 seconds at 302.69 mph to dispose of Kalivoda in the opening round of Top Fuel eliminations. In round two, the two-time consecutive champion bested Schumacher, the current NHRA points leader, after powering his Dick LaHaie-tuned Miller Lite rail to the quickest pass of the round at 4.562 at 317.94. Schumacher lost traction and slowed to a pass of 6.820 at 117.70. Dixon's dragster lost traction early in the run in his semifinal matchup with Millican, who drove to a performance of 4.810 at 287.72 to score the win.

b^0x001cI'm satisfied that we gained 30 points on first place," Dixon said. "We went to the semis on Sunday. You're never happy getting beat. I think everybody's objective is to win races. You come here and you get down to four cars and we had a car that was running really good, but we spun the tires and got beat."

ESPN2 will televise two hours of final eliminations coverage from the O'Reilly Spring Nationals at 5 p.m. (ET) on Sunday, April 18.

The next NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event is the fourth annual O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals, April 30-May 2, at Bristol Dragway in Bristol, Tenn.

-www.snakeracing.com