NHRA

Pomona: The Dixon Dispatch pre-race

The Dixon Dispatch The Weekly News Release of Larry Dixon & the Miller Lite Dragster Larry Dixon & Miller Lite Team Look To Show Their Stuff As They Kick Off Don Prudhomme's 40th Anniversary Season At K&N Winternationals POMONA, CA (Feb. 5) - ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

The Dixon Dispatch
The Weekly News Release of Larry Dixon & the Miller Lite Dragster

Larry Dixon & Miller Lite Team Look To Show Their Stuff As They Kick Off Don Prudhomme's 40th Anniversary Season At K&N Winternationals

POMONA, CA (Feb. 5) - Pomona Raceway has been the sight of several great stories over the years and this weekend's 42nd Annual K&N Filters Winternationals (Feb. 7-10) is just the beginning of another chapter in NHRA POWERade Drag Racing.

Larry Dixon and Don Prudhomme's Miller Lite Top Fuel Team pick up the intensity right where they left off at Pomona three months ago when Dixon completed a career season, finishing just 95 points away from his first championship.

But in spite of his success and personal achievements last year, Dixon feels this weekend's Winternationals bring a clean slate and yet another season in which he must prove the Miller Lite Team is worthy of the Top Fuel crown.

"We begin the season all tied for first place," said Dixon. "Testing went really well for us and now it's time to show our stuff. Now is the time for us to prove whether we have done a good job over the winter or not. The time for studying is over. Now, it's time to take the test."

A question Dixon is not sure how to answer is the problem he has faced at Pomona over the past four years- how to get past Mike Dunn and Gary Scelzi on race day. The last time Dixon won at Pomona, he beat Jim Head in 1998. Since then either Dunn or Scelzi has sent Dixon home early at each of the last eight NHRA events at Pomona. "I didn't realize those guys were taking me out as much as they were," said Dixon.

"I think it's pretty ironic that both of them have been the ones to knock us out and now this year one will be in a Funny Car and the other will be in the TV booth. It doesn't matter though because there will still be 16 equally-tough cars to try and beat on Sunday, so we just have to try and get the job done no matter who we race."

One competitor who Dixon has raced his fair share of times over the last year is nemesis Kenny Bernstein. In spite of nine head-to-head match-ups and a heated chase for the Top Fuel crown with his rival last season, Dixon believes that 2001 is behind him and feels no sense of unfinished business toward his adversary. "I think the rivalry gets played up," said Dixon. "We just happen to have the two hottest cars right now, just like Tony Schumacher and Gary Scelzi a couple of years ago. I try equally as hard to beat everyone, but beating Kenny always puts a little icing on the cake."

Larry Dixon's Career Results in Pomona Year Event Qual. Finish & Winning Driver
1995 Winternationals No. 2 Semifinals-S. Kalitta
1995 Winston Finals No. 3 Runner up-B. Johnson
1996 Winternationals No. 13 Semifinals-B. Johnson
1996 Winston Finals No. 9 Semifinals-S. Kalitta
1997 Winternationals No. 10 First Round-C. Powell
1997 Winston Finals No. 1 First Round-T. Gibson
1998 Winternationals No. 6 WON-defeated J. Head
1998 Winston Finals No. 4 Semifinals-G. Scelzi
1999 Winternationals No. 6 Runner up-M. Dunn
1999 Winston Finals No. 14 First Round-M. Dunn
2000 Winternationals No. 3 Semifinals-G. Scelzi
2000 Winston Finals No. 8 Second round-M. Dunn
2001 Winternationals No. 3 Semifinals-M. Dunn
2001 NHRA 50th Ntls. No. 4 Semifinals-G. Scelzi
2001 Winston Finals No. 3 Semifinals-M. Dunn

Larry Dixon's Race Schedule
Date & Time Location
Thur, 2/7 200p Qualifying session #1
Fri, 2/8 200p Qualifying session #2
Sat, 2/9 1130a Qualifying session #3
100-300p KLSX FM LIVE in the pits
230p Qualifying session #4
Sun, 2/10 1030a Final eliminations

NHRA on Television This Weekend
Date & Time (ET) Network Coverage
Feb. 9, 430-600p ESPN Qualifying
Feb. 9, 600-700p ESPN 2 Qualifying
Feb. 10, 500-700p ESPN Eliminations

- www.snakeracing.com

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Pomona: Doug Herbert preview

Next article Lee Callaway 2002 preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Spire, Chris Gabehart reject Joe Gibbs Racing premise on deleted texts

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

25 min

Spire, Chris Gabehart reject Joe Gibbs Racing premise on deleted texts

Ricky Stenhouse explains his side of Michael McDowell conflict

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

4 h

Ricky Stenhouse explains his side of Michael McDowell conflict

Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 5 h

Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test

Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

6 h

Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts