Seattle: Larry Dixon final summary

DIXON RACES MILLER LITE DRAGSTER TO FIRST-ROUND PERFORMANCE AT SEATTLE KENT, Wash. (July 23, 2006) - Two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon drove his Don "the Snake" Prudhomme-owned Miller Lite dragster to a first-round finish Sunday at ...

DIXON RACES MILLER LITE DRAGSTER TO FIRST-ROUND PERFORMANCE AT SEATTLE

KENT, Wash. (July 23, 2006) - Two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon drove his Don "the Snake" Prudhomme-owned Miller Lite dragster to a first-round finish Sunday at Pacific Raceways to complete the 19th running of the Schuck's Auto Supply Nationals.

Dixon, who qualified 10th in the 16-car Top Fuel field, was matched up against No. 7 qualifier Doug Kalitta for the 43rd time in his 12-year driving career. The veteran drivers used nearly identical reaction times before the Miller Lite rail lost traction forcing Dixon to pedal the throttle en route to a run of 4.904 seconds at 312.86 mph. Kalitta's red dragster clocked a performance of 4.669 at 310.20 to earn the trip to round two. Dixon now holds a 22-21 head-to-head margin over the Michigan racer.

"The car started shaking real early in the run and I had to pedal it," Dixon said. "It was a lot like two of our runs on Sunday last week at Denver. It's kind of a bummer because if we would have just run what we ran in qualifying on Saturday, we could have won the round."

The next NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event is the 19th annual FRAM-Autolite Nationals, July 28-30, at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. Dixon won the Sonoma race in 2003 to become just the third Top Fuel driver to sweep the Western Swing (Denver/Seattle/Sonoma).