Bristol: Larry Dixon final summary

DIXON RACES TO SECOND-ROUND FINISH AT THUNDER VALLEY BRISTOL, Tenn. (May 1, 2005) -- Two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon raced his Miller Lite dragster to a second-round finish Sunday at Bristol Dragway. After two days of rain at Thunder ...

DIXON RACES TO SECOND-ROUND FINISH AT THUNDER VALLEY

BRISTOL, Tenn. (May 1, 2005) -- Two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon raced his Miller Lite dragster to a second-round finish Sunday at Bristol Dragway.

After two days of rain at Thunder Valley where only one of four scheduled qualifying sessions was completed, the sun returned in Eastern Tennessee as did the NHRA drag racing action. Dixon, the third winningest Top Fuel driver in NHRA history with 36 career victories, started in the No. 7 qualifying position and used the third quickest elapsed time of the first round of eliminations to score the win over veteran pilot Doug Herbert.

In the second round, Dixon was ahead of upstart racer Scott Palmer before the Miller Lite car lost traction, allowing Palmer's rail to scoot around for the narrow victory and a trip to the semifinals. Dixon remains third in the POWERade Top Fuel standings as the Miller Lite/Ameriquest team looks to earn a third title in four seasons.

"The track just didn't have the same bite in the second round," assistant crew chief Don Bender said. "The car started spinning the tires about 400 feet into the run. The track just went away. If we knew the track had gone away that much, we would have made some more adjustments to compensate."

The next NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event is the 25th annual Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals, May 12-15, at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga. Dixon and Don Prudhomme's Miller Lite team will return to their Brownsburg, Ind. race shop to gear up for the first three-race swing on the 2005 NHRA schedule that begins in two weeks in Georgia. Dixon is a three-time Atlanta Dragway winner.