Reading: Larry Dixon Friday summary

DIXON TAKES THE NO. 5 SPOT AT MAPLE GROVE RACEWAY

READING, Pa., (Sept. 29, 2006) - Two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon raced his Don "the Snake" Prudhomme-owned Miller Lite dragster to the provisional No. 5 qualifying position Friday at the 22nd annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.

Dixon drove his Don Bender-tuned dragster to a Friday-best time of 4.541-seconds at 327.74 mph after two sessions.

"We had some problems at the last race (DNQ in Dallas) and Donnie and Todd Smith were able to put all that behind us and set the car up to run a 4.55 or 4.58," Dixon said. "The car did exactly what they wanted it to do and we recorded a 4.557. The preparation between events paid off."

The 38-time NHRA winner has two runner-up finishes at Maple Grove Raceway (2005, 1995) to his credit and will be looking to make a third career final round appearance here on Sunday.

"Tomorrow we are going to try to pick up the pace," Dixon said. "We're going to have cool weather all weekend and the run we put up on the board in the last session wasn't exactly what we were looking for. We were aiming for the 4.49 to 4.52 range, but the car drove through the clutch a little bit. There is still plenty of room on the table for us to improve which is good because I think if you want to win on Sunday, you're going to have to run in the high 4.40s or a 4.50 flat. That's what we're going to work on tomorrow."

-credit: snake racing