Joliet: Larry Dixon final summary

DIXON EARN FIRST-ROUND FINISH AT JOLIET JOLIET, Ill. (June 11, 2006) -- Two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon drove his Don "the Snake" Prudhomme-owned Miller Lite dragster to an opening-round effort Sunday at Route 66 Raceway. After ...

DIXON EARN FIRST-ROUND FINISH AT JOLIET

JOLIET, Ill. (June 11, 2006) -- Two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon drove his Don "the Snake" Prudhomme-owned Miller Lite dragster to an opening-round effort Sunday at Route 66 Raceway.

After qualifying in the No. 10 position with a 4.540-second elapsed time in qualifying, the 38-time NHRA winner used a .098 of-a-second reaction time to speed to the early lead before the Miller Lite/Lucas Oil dragster started dropping cylinders and slowed to a performance of 4.893 seconds at 298.93 mph. That allowed Vandergriff to drive around and score the opening-round win with a 4.750-second pass.

"We were the uglier of an ugly drag race," Dixon said. "We didn't have the right setup in the car. The car shook and I stayed with it hoping that it would drive through it, but it didn't. At that point, I had to pedal the car and you hope the guy you're racing has more trouble than you do. As it turned out, we had more trouble than he did."