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DIXON BY THE NUMBERS
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| Larry Dixon says "Thank you. Thank you verra
much" in the winner's circle. (photo by Zak Hawthorne) |
Reaching his fourth final round in as many races, Larry
Dixon got his first career win at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Dixon's third win of the season was also the 19th of his career and
moved him up to 24th on the NHRA all-time wins list, tying him with
his former boss, Gary Beck. The win gave team owner Don Prudhomme his
30th victory as a team owner since retiring from driving in 1994 and
was his 79th win overall.
The Miller Lite pilot ran the table for the second straight
race in a row as he won the race, set low e.t. (4.575 seconds), top
speed (325.37 mph) and was No. 1 qualifier - just as he did at the Gatornationals.
- Skip Allum
SLIPPING AWAY . . .
Whit Bazemore got at Las Vegas what he figured he could
afford least: a first-round defeat. The more frustrated half of Don
Schumacher Racing's Funny Car tandem dropped from the top 10 in POWERade
points. His opening-round loss to eventual runner-up Tommy Johnson Jr.
cost him 22 more points in his mission to dethrone John Force. Heading
to Houston, Bazemore has 161 points, six behind No. 10 John Lawson and
147 behind leader Force. He was trying to close the 125-point gap Force
had opened on him after the Gainesville race.
"This race is critical for us. It's probably the most
important race we've had in quite awhile," Bazemore had said during
qualifying. "Our backs are against the wall. There's no cushion for
error."
What irked Bazemore is Pontiac's withdrawal of engineering
and technical support. "Toyota is being very aggressive. Ford is being
very aggressive," Bazemore said. "Companies come and go, but few have
made the commitment Pontiac has. Too bad they didn't want to stick it
out.
"It's frustrating. They've been real good to me. Now we
have our best opportunity to achieve our goals, and just when we need
the most tech support, they're gone."
Seven months ago at Indianapolis, Bazemore debuted a sleeker
body that Reynard engineers had helped sculpt. That enabled him to win
his second U.S. Nationals, qualify No.1 at nine of the final 12 events,
set the top three fastest speeds in Funny Car history and record seven
of the nine quickest elapsed times ever in the class.
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