Larry Dixon's favorite NHRA Winternationals: 1998

Larry Dixon has won three times in the National Hot Rod Assn. Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. He won back-to-back races in 2002-03. But he said his first Winternationals top fuel win stands out.
He won his first Winternationals in 1998 while driving for Don Prudhomme Racing. His teammate, Ron Capps, won the funny car portion of the Winternationals, giving Prudhomme a double in Pomona.
Dixon remembers that his car broke in the final against Jim Head. Head's car broke too, and Dixon coasted past the finish line, slightly ahead of Head.
Dixon, a two-time NHRA top fuel champion, is coming off a second-place finish in the top fuel standings in 2009. He won five races and made nine final-round appearances.

Tony Schumacher, Larry Dixon advance to second round of NHRA finals in Pomona

Tony Schumacher, top, has a two-point lead over Larry Dixon in the NHRA top fuel standings. Both drivers won their first-round races at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona on Sunday.

Tony Schumacher, Larry Dixon advance to second round of NHRA finals in Pomona

Posted using ShareThis

Larry Dixon sets Pomona track record in NHRA top-fuel qualifying -- latimes.com

Larry Dixon sets Pomona track record in NHRA top-fuel qualifying -- latimes.com

Posted using ShareThis

Larry Dixon set a track record at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona and took over the lead in the National Hot Rod Assn. top-fuel standings.

Dixon has a one-point lead over Tony Schumacher after recording the fastest top-fuel time in qualifying Friday for the season-ending NHRA Finals. His speed of 318.99 mph was a track record and his time of 3.801 seconds was 0.008 of a second better than Spencer Massey, the second-fastest qualifier.

"The last time I was in Pomona, I didn't race on Sunday," said Dixon, a Van Nuys High graduate and two-time NHRA top-fuel champion. "We definitely got a better start to the weekend. I'm excited to see how it turns out."

NHRA standings tight heading to Las Vegas

Here’s what to watch for and who to root for at the National Hot Rod Assn. drag races at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend.
The Countdown to One playoffs have two rounds left. The first is at Las Vegas and the season ends at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona on Nov. 15. The standings in the top fuel and funny car divisions are tight and history could be made in the final two races of the season.
First, Larry Dixon is second in the NHRA top fuel standings, 47 points behind Tony Schumacher. Dixon is no stranger to championships, but it would be nice to see someone else win the top fuel title. Schumacher has won five in a row. Talk about a dynasty. And to think NASCAR fans are tired of seeing Jimmie Johnson win the Chase every year.
Schumacher even alluded to Johnson’s pursuit of a fourth straight Cup championship and how he knows what Johnson is talking about when he says he doesn’t want to talk about points anymore.
It sounds like Schumacher is tired of seeing his name atop the top fuel standings at the end of the season.
Dixon, a Van Nuys High graduate and driver for Al-Anabi Racing, has the best shot of catching Schumacher.
“I like where the Al-Anabi team is in the playoffs right now; I like the car and everything else that’s going on,” Dixon said. “The team is making great calls, and the whole package is going well. There have been a few dumb things that have happened that have kept us from winning. Sooner or later, those things will run out, and we’ll be able to get our Al-Anabi car back in the winner’s circle. The way the points are, if we win both races, we’ll win the championship. I’m not wishing anything bad on anyone, but if we take care of our own business, everything else will take care if itself.”

On the funny car side, it’s hard to choose between Ashley Force Hood and Jack Beckman. Force Hood is second in the funny car standings, a mere 13 points behind leader and John Force Racing teammate Robert Hight.
She has a chance to become the first woman driver to win an NHRA funny car championship. That would be neat to see, even if she is downplaying it a bit.
“It’s not a big deal to me,” she said, “and I think the reason is because I had nothing to do with being a female. I’m just a race car driver. I have a team of men that work on my car [and] if you’ve ever seen me work on an automobile, you know I wouldn’t be second in points if I was on the crew. It’s them and me, together as a team. We are the ones going for that championship, not just me as an individual.”
Beckman is in a distant sixth place in the funny car standings, but he is only 86 points out of first. He has to work his way through quite a traffic jam to get to the top of the funny car standings and is running out of time to get there.
One thing in his favor, though, is that he won the NHRA funny car portion of the races at Las Vegas in 2006. If he can duplicate that feat again, he will be in a good position at Pomona.

“It’s interesting. We’re actually excited about Vegas this weekend,” said Beckman, who lives in North Hills. “We have an enormous uphill battle. We really need to win seven of the next eight rounds to have a legitimate shot at the championship. Everybody on the team knows that and we’re plugging away with that as the goal.
“We don’t want to finish fifth or fourth or third; we want to finish first. We still have a shot, and we need to hope that the two John Force cars stumble at both races.”

Photos: Top, Larry Dixon is in second place in the NHRA top fuel standings and is looking to snap Tony Schumacker's streak of five straight NHRA top fuel championships.

Middle, Ashley Force Hood is 13 points out of first place in the NHRA funny car standings. She is looking to become the first woman driver to win an NHRA funny car championship.

Bottom, Jack Beckman is sixth in the NHRA funny car standings, but he is the 2006 funny car champ at Las Vegas. He will need another championship run to stay in championship contention with two races remaining in the NHRA season.

Long NHRA layoff great for drivers, bad for fans

Is it really another week before the NHRA Countdown to One playoffs continue? This is taking longer than the NBA playoffs.
The drivers and teams seem to appreciate the three-week layoff between races. The Countdown resumes on Oct. 29 at The Strip in Las Vegas.
For those who need a quick reminder, Ashley Force Hood is in search of her first NHRA funny car championship. She trails teammate Robert Hight by 13 points with two events remaining.
Larry Dixon is in the hunt to bring his new team, Al-Anabi Racing, its first championship in the NHRA top fuel division. Dixon is in second place in the top fuel standings and trails Tony Schumacher by 47 points.
The season ends Nov. 12-15 at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
While the drivers are enjoying the time off, the NHRA nation is impatiently waiting for the playoffs to resume.
Force Hood said the break between races is perfect timing.
“It is a little strange when we get back to Vegas; that first day is odd when you have not been to the track for a couple of weeks to get yourself organized and get back into your routine of a race day and qualifying and everything like that,” Force Hood said. “But I think it was well needed and I think it really adds to the excitement that the fans have had to race a couple of weeks and now you’ll get to see the final two big championship races. It was perfect I think it was right what everybody needed.”

Dixon, however, is like most race fans. He would prefer to race every weekend than take a long break.
“I think if you ask most racers, they would like to race every weekend because they love racing,” said Dixon. “But it certainly affords a team, you know, after four in a row, I mean, that’s – you’d have to go back to the few years to go into even rain outs where we have had where we have run four in a row. It’s been a while.”
Force Hood said her timing is off, especially during interviews. It might take some time to get that back on track once racing resumes. The actual racing should not be affected by the long layoff.
“And a funny thing I was actually thinking a couple of minutes ago during one of my answers that was rambling on, I thought, you know, I haven’t done an interview in about a week and it really shows,” Force Hood said in a teleconference on Wednesday. “That’s probably the one thing about the drivers, it seems when you jump right back in your race car, it comes right back to you, because it’s not something you’re thinking about, it’s more your body is reacting in a race car.
“But the talking side of things I’ll definitely need to be warming up and finding my words in the next week to be ready for Vegas, because I feel like I’m mumbling a lot today.”
If anything, it gives team plenty of time to prepare for the last two races of the season, Dixon said. For teams still in championship contention, the time to prepare the cars is invaluable.
“So you know, it lets the teams go over the cars and go over all of the engines and just have everything restocked up, let them catch their breath, check in with their families, pay their bills and get ready to head out west and go to Vegas and Pomona,” Dixon said, “because that’s and it’s nice to have everything restocked and have all of your batteries recharged and get back out there for those last two events because that's, everything is on the line for those two.”

Photos: At top, Ashley Force Hood is in second place in the NHRA funny car standings and trails John Force Racing teammate Robert Hight by 13 points with two races remaining.

In middle, Larry Dixon is second in the NHRA top fuel standings and trails Tony Schumacher by 47 points.

Dixon bypasses tests, ready for NHRA U.S. Nationals

National Hot Rod Assn. driver Larry Dixon is so confident in his car and team right now that he didn’t test last weekend in Indianapolis in preparation for the U.S. Nationals.
A number of NHRA teams spent last week at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis testing for this weekend’s U.S. Nationals.
But Dixon’s Al-Anabi Racing team, owned by Alan Johnson, decided against testing after two straight final appearances and a win in the races at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa. It was his fifth win of the season and his sixth finals appearance.
“We tested before Brainerd, and we have two finals and a win,” said Dixon, a Van Nuys High graduate. “The car is definitely responding the way he and Alan would like it to respond, and for that reason, we didn’t test this past week at Indianapolis.”
Dixon is second in the NHRA top fuel standings and has already secured a berth in the Countdown to One, the playoffs that determine the NHRA champions. Dixon has advanced to the semifinals in nine of the 17 races so far this season. He is also a three-time champion in the U.S. Nationals, winning in 1995, 2001 and 2005.
“It’s always exciting to race at Indy,” Dixon said “It’s obviously the biggest and most prestigious race on our tour and you want to be piquing right now. We have a really good car going into this race. I’m honored that I’ve won the U.S. Nationals. As a kid growing up in the sport, going to that race with my dad for so many years with my family top fuel car, we never did the full tour, but we always went to Indy. That’s where everyone congregated on Labor Day weekend.”

Photo: Larry Dixon has five NHRA top fuel wins and is second in the top fuel standings entering the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.

Dixon in the NHRA Countdown

Larry Dixon was knocked out in the second round of the National Hot Rod Assn. top fuel races at Pacific Raceways near Seattle on Sunday. But he left as one of three top fuel drivers who have clinched a spot in the Countdown to One playoffs.
Dixon, a Van Nuys High graduate, Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown, the leader in the top fuel standings are in the Countdown. The top-10 drivers in the top fuel standings will qualify for the playoffs.
“The consolation prize that came out of Seattle is that we clinched a spot on the playoffs,” said Dixon, who drives for Al-Anabi Racing. “We all thought we’d be there, but knowing you have a spot is much nicer. Now it’s all about getting in the best position we can for the playoffs to help our championship effort. First place is not out of the question, but right now, it’s pretty far out of sight. Antron’s team really opened up a big lead on us in the last couple of races so we just have to go out there, do our best, try to win some races and see where we end up.”
Brown won the top fuel races at Seattle and at Bandimere Speedway in Colorado and can complete the Western Swing sweep if he wins the races at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.
He has a 137-point lead over Shumacher. Dixon is in third in the top fuel standings.
Last year, Dixon lost to Brown in the second round of the races at Sonoma. Dixon won the Sonoma race in 2003.
“The best way to make up points is win races, so we’ll be trying to do that this week,” Dixon said. “Antron will be trying to complete the sweep, but there will be 15 other cars trying to prevent the sweep; we’re one of them.”

Photo: Larry Dixon earned a spot in the NHRA Countdown to One playoffs at Pacific Raceways near Seattle on Sunday.

NHRA's Larry Dixon shoots for third straight win

Larry Dixon is riding a couple impressive streaks in the National Hot Rod Assn. top fuel division. He was won two events in a row and has made it to the semifinals in four straight events.
The Van Nuys High graduate enters this weekend’s races at Bandimere Speedway in Colorado as the second place driver in the top fuel standings and as the hottest driver in the division.
“From where we were when we left Bristol in May, these last four events have been really nice; a very stark contrast,” said Dixon, who drives for Al-Anabi racing. “I am not too caught up on streaks or anything like that; I’m just enjoying the moment.”
Dixon can pinpoint the moment, or at least the day, when his team started its incredible streak. It was right after the races at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee in May. Crew chief Jason McCulloch decided to make some drastic changes during a test in Atlanta and Dixon and his team have been nearly unbeatable since.
“What we’re doing right now is what exactly what Jason talked about after we left Bristol to go to Atlanta and test for two days,” Dixon said. “He said we would make a bunch of runs and we’d ‘get our groove on. You’re gonna start driving the car well, and we’re gonna start making the right calls. We’re gonna make a bunch of runs and go from there.’ The more information they get, the more chances they have to make better calls and be better. Collectively, that’s exactly what has happened, and Jason made the call back in May.”
Dixon is a two-time winner at Bandimere. He won in 2001 and 2003. Last year, he was the No. 3 qualifier and lost to Tony Schumacher in the semifinals.
“With the elevation at Denver, it’s hard to make good power and have good downforce because the air is so thin,” Dixon said. “We’ve raced there before when the air is corrected to what you’d find at 10,000 feet, so that makes it tough to make power and build downforce. It’s challenging to win in Denver, but that’s what makes it cool to win there.

Hornaday, Dixon, Beckman winners

It was a good weekend for racers with Southern California roots.
Ron Hornaday Jr. won in Memphis. Larry Dixon and Jack Beckman won in Norwalk, Ohio.
Hornaday won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Memphis Motorsports Park on Saturday. It was his third win of the season, the 42nd of his career and helped him pad his lead in the Truck Series standings to 76 points.
“This has been a pretty commanding truck,” said Hornaday, driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet Silverado for Kevin Harvick Inc. “I’m not sure what we keep doing to it, but we need to keep doing it.”
Hornaday has won two straight Truck Series races. He won the previous race at The Milwaukee. His 42 Truck Series wins are the most any driver in the series.
“This is pretty cool that I won the last Elvis trophy that they are going to have here,” Hornaday said. “I race for trophies and this has to be one of the nicest. I have to thank Longhorn, Kevin and DeLana (Harvick) and everyone else at KHI who makes racing these trucks possible. The last two weeks have been really fun and I look forward to a few weeks off before Kentucky.”
Beckman won the National Hot Rod Assn. funny car portion of the races at Summit Motorsports Park on Sunday. It was his second win of the season and snapped the two-race winning streak of Tony Pedregon.
Beckman beat Bob Tasca III with a .001 second reaction time in the final at Norwalk.
“In the final I made a mistake and got away with it, pure and simple,” said Beckman, a driver from North Hills and a driver for Don Schumacher Racing. “We had a good race car, [but] we were vulnerable. I’m not sure if this was the hottest track we raced on all year but [it was] 132 degrees. And with the new asphalt it was slippery down there, so I don’t think you were ever going to see anybody dominate.”
Beckman moved up to fourth in the funny car standings and earned the 130th national event win for Don Schumacher Racing.
Dixon continued his perfect season in final appearances in the NHRA top fuel division. He is 4-for-4 when he reaches the finals this year.
In Norwalk, Dixon faced Brandon Bernstein in the final and won the 47th NHRA top fuel race of his career.
“Four win lights at the end of the day, that’s what counts,” said Dixon, a Van Nuys High graduate and driver for Al-Anabi Racing. “There were certain rounds that were not pretty, but at the same time, we were the quickest car every pair. I’m just real thankful to be able to get this win.”
Dixon moved into second place in the top fuel standings, leap-frogging Tony Schumacher, the reigning top fuel champion.
“The biggest thing is that [this is] a good team, and they’re working on trying to find the personality of all the brand-new parts they have, and for me, it’s trying to find my comfort zone within the team,” Dixon said. “Being underneath one camp for a long period of time and then you switch, it’s different. It’s taken me a little while to adapt and try to fit in and hold up my end of the bargain.”

Photo: Jack Beckman, a driver from North Hills, won the NHRA funny car portion of the races at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, on Sunday.

NHRA's Larry Dixon on the rise

National Hot Rod Assn. top fuel driver Larry Dixon has won two of the past three events and has moved within shouting distance of Antron Brown, the leader in the top fuel standings.
With Dixon obviously on the rise, and reigning top fuel champion Tony Schumacher slipping a bit, it might be the end of the line for one of the more impressive runs in motor sports. Schumacher has been almost unbeatable for at least the past two seasons. Now it looks like Dixon and Brown will give Schumacher a challenge for the top fuel crown.
Dixon has been the hottest of the three drivers in recent weeks. He is coming off a win at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey, his third of the season. He has advanced to the semifinals in three straight events. He has been to the semifinals in six of the 11 events so far this year.
His past three races have been the most impressive of the season.
“That three-race swing, I think we out-pointed everybody with two wins and a semifinal,” Dixon a Van Nuys High graduate and driver for Al-Anabi Racing. “We went from sixth to third, and it was a great run.”
Dixon is third in the top fuel standings, 97 points behind Brown. Schumacher is second, 34 points out of first.
Dixon said his team tested the car after the races at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee. After that, Dixon won at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas and made it to the semifinals at Route 66 Raceway in Illinois before winning again in New Jersey.
“For me, it feels like we have less pressure on us now,” Dixon said. “Everybody on our team wants and expects to do well. We all have a past now; we’ve gone to 11 races together, and it’s more enjoyable going rounds and knowing the car is running well and I’m driving well. All of that takes pressure off of us; now you just have to go out there and do your thing.”
The next race for Dixon and the NHRA top fuel drivers is at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. Dixon’s string of semifinal appearances will be put to the test this weekend. He has never won at Norwalk in the top fuel division.

Photo: Larry Dixon is in search of his fourth NHRA top fuel win of the season this weekend at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. He has won two of the past three top fuel events, including the most recent at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey.

Dixon 3-for-3 in NHRA top fuel finals

Larry Dixon, a National Hot Rod Assn. top fuel driver and a Van Nuys High graduate, made it a perfect 3-for-3 in finals after winning at Old Bridge Township Raceway in New Jersey on Sunday.
Dixon won his third top fuel final of the season and his fifth career NHRA top fuel event in Englishtown, N.J. Joe Amato has the most wins of any NHRA driver at Englishtown with six.
“We’ve had a lot of success at this race,” said Dixon, a driver from Al-Anabi Racing. “The race used to be Father’s Day at Columbus, and we won out until they moved the Father’s Day to here. I was like, ‘Wow, I haven’t won Englishtown in a long time. It would be cool to do that,’ nonchalantly saying that at the beginning of the season. And then all of a sudden, you get to go to a bunch of finals and win here. This is a great track, and there’s so much history here. Racing on the same track as ‘Jungle’ and Garlits and Shirley and all my heroes that I grew up watching race is a great deal.”
Dixon was referring to NHRA legends “Jungle” Jim Libeman, “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and Shirley Muldowney.
With the win, Dixon moved up to third place in the NHRA top fuel standings. Antron Brown, who Dixon defeated in the finals at Englishtown, leads the top fuel standings. He has a 34-point lead over reigning top fuel champion Tony Schumacher.
“Even though we didn’t get the win here, we still managed to make a lot of progress relative to performance,” said Schumacher, who lost to Brown in the semifinals. “I believe we’ve got a solid combination right now. I’m looking for that to translate into some wins real soon.”

Photo: Larry Dixon won his third NHRA top fuel race and his fifth career NHRA race at Old Bridge Township Raceway in New Hersey on Sunday. Only Joe Amato with six wins has won more NHRA races at Englishtown, N.J.

Dixon joins NHRA's 500 club

Larry Dixon joined the 500-win club a couple weekends ago at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee and added to his total by winning the NHRA top fuel event at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas last weekend. He has 504 round wins in his career, one of only seven NHRA drivers to reach that milestone. John Force, who races in the NHRA funny car division, leads all drivers with 1,022 round wins. He is also the only driver with 1,000 round wins.
Force, Warren Johnson, Kurt Johnson and Dixon are the only active drivers among the seven drivers with at least 500 round wins.
For the record, Dixon notched his 500th round win in the first round at Bristol. He went on to win four rounds at Topeka and now has 504 career round wins. He is six round wins behind Kurt Johnson, who sits in sixth place with 510 career round wins.
“It was nice to be able to go out there at Topeka and have a great event,” said Dixon, a driver for Al-Anabi Racing and a Van Nuys High graduate. “The car ran well all weekend, and everything about it was good. The other plus was that everyone ahead of us in points went out early so we were able to make up a lot of ground. We only moved up two spots, but we gained a lot of ground on some teams so that was a nice bonus.”
Dixon moved up to fourth place in the top fuel standings and trails leader Tony Schumacher by 141 points.
“Everything that happened from the time we got back to the pit area after the second-round loss at Bristol to the time we went to Topeka was good,” Dixon said. “We talked a lot in Bristol, and then tested for two days in Atlanta. We tried a lot of different things, and I was just making runs in the car. Everything about it was good … the mental and physical parts were great. Just being able to spend time with everyone and make the runs was important. We have all of the pieces we need, but we are now becoming more of a team, and I think we saw some of the results with our win at Topeka.”

Photo: Larry Dixon moved into fourth place in the NHRA top fuel standings after winning at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas on Sunday.

Dixon, Capps NHRA winners in Topeka

Van Nuys High graduate Larry Dixon won the NHRA top fuel portion of the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas on Sunday. Dixon, driving Al-Anabi Racing, laid down a 3.971-second pass in the final against Clay Millican to win his second race of the year and the 45th of his career.
Dixon’s win comes off a weekend at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee when he lost on one of the closest hole shots in his career in top fuel.
“I’ve had worse weekends [than Bristol], but it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone to say that I’m not where I want to be driving the car, and I think it peaked out last week,” Dixon said Dixon. “Alan [Johnson, team owner] took his crew chief hat off and put his coach hat on and worked on me and getting me right. We went and ran the car at Atlanta on Monday and Tuesday after Bristol and just made a whole bunch of runs. That was just nice, hitting the throttle and getting runs. They learned a lot from that test, and I learned a lot from that test. I was very excited and there wasn’t anything apprehensive about coming to this event. I just wanted to come here and get the gloves on and get in the game.”
Ron Capps, the leader in the funny car standings, won at Topeka, beating Ashley Force Hood in the final.
“It really came around probably from second round on after we beat John Force in the right lane,” said Capps, who extended his points lead to 119 over Del Worsham. “Everybody was saying there was no way you’re going to get down that track. And (crew chief) Ed McCulloch just kept plugging away.”
Worsham, a driver from Chino Hills, had won the previous two funny car events in a row.
Force Hood was the top qualifier and Capps, who drives from Don Schumacher Racing, said he expected her to put up quite a challenge in the final.
"We figured they were going to step up like they were capable of doing,” Capps said. “They were No. 1 qualifier and we figured they were going to run a mid-4.20 and I was going to have to do my job on the starting line. And for Ace to pull out a 4.26 in the final round on a 125-degree track was incredible.”
Force Hood is third in the funny car standings, 126 points behind Capps.
“We’re gonna keep our sights set on that No. 1 spot,” Force Hood said. “I don’t think it’s out of our reach. We just kind of need to stay focused.and keep fighting the fight.”
Jack Beckman, a driver from North Hills, lost Capps, his teammate at Don Schumacher Racing, in the semifinals.
“We had an air line split on the car right at the hit,” said Beckman. “We did everything right for eliminations. And if you look at the numbers up until the time it ran out of air we were hauling butt. It was going to run a 4.25, it was going to turn the win light on, but our car didn’t get there first, so you have to hand it to the NAPA team.”

Photo: Ashley Force Hood lost in the NHRA funny car final to Ron Capps on Sunday at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas.