Richmond: Larry Dixon final summary

DIXON EARNS A ROUND WIN IN RICHMOND; SEARCHING FOR CONSISTENCY ON RACE DAY RICHMOND, Va., (Oct. 15, 2006) -- Larry Dixon and the crew of the Miller Lite team all went out to dinner together Sunday night. It wasn't a celebration dinner, mind you.

DIXON EARNS A ROUND WIN IN RICHMOND; SEARCHING FOR CONSISTENCY ON RACE DAY

RICHMOND, Va., (Oct. 15, 2006) -- Larry Dixon and the crew of the Miller Lite team all went out to dinner together Sunday night. It wasn't a celebration dinner, mind you. They were preparing to test on Monday and wanted to talk about the game plan first.

After the team's second round loss Sunday at the Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports, the team has opted to stay an extra day in hopes of figuring out a few things before the next race starts in Las Vegas in two weeks.

"We're going to stay and test and see if we can't get our car to be a little more predictable on race day," Dixon said. "This was the third time in a row that we smoked the tires on the starting line on race day. This isn't something that anyone on this team is OK with. We're going to keep working on it and get better before we head to Las Vegas for the race and the bonus event."

Dixon beat Steve Torrence in the first round with a 4.603-second pass at 308.78 mph, topping Torrence's 6.163 at 140.69. Dixon lost in the second round to Rod Fuller. Fuller turned in a 4.593 at 305.84 to beat Dixon's tire-smoking 12.270 pass at 86.43.

The team had lane choice in the first round and wanted to make a good, clean run to start the day. They did not have lane choice in the quarterfinals.

"We wanted to go out there and run a pass in the 4.50s or low 60s in the first round and just start the day off with a good run," Dixon said. "We did that in the first round but we didn't earn lane choice for round two. We had the less desirable lane but we smoked the tires early so I'm not sure if that affected us at all.

"We're going to figure it all out and do whatever work is necessary to have a good showing at the next race. That's what everyone on this team wants."

Dixon drove his Miller Lite Top Fueler to the No. 6 qualifying position with a 4.557 pass at 314.75. It was the 12th time he qualified in the top half of the field this season. For the team's consistent efforts throughout the four qualifying sessions, they were given the Full Throttle Award for the first time. Teams compete each weekend for the honor and the team with the most consistent ET's gets a $3,000 prize.

Dixon -- a 38-time NHRA event winner behind the wheel of the Don Prudhomme-owned dragster -- earned his first career No. 1 qualifying award in Richmond during his rookie season in 1995. He also has a win (2000) and a runner-up (1999) finish there.