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Reaching his seventh final round after the first eight
races of the season, NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Top Fuel points
leader Larry Dixon posted a runner-up finish but maintains a strong
143-point lead over Kenny Bernstein in the hunt for the championship.
Dixon and crew chief Dick LaHaie's consistency continued
as the Miller Lite/Lucas Oil car made its third consecutive final round
appearance after back-to-back wins at Bristol and Atlanta.
Dixon's 40th career final round paired him against No.
2 qualifier Bernstein in what has become a common occurrence over the
past two seasons. The Miller Lite/Raybestos car needed to be pedaled
twice and clocked in at 4.818 seconds (319.90 mph) and surrendered to
a time of 4.600 seconds at 321.96 mph. Dixon still holds a 3-1 edge
over Bernstein in head-to-head races in 2002 - three of which have come
in the final round - and is now 3-4 against his rival in overall final
round competition. Although he did not win the event, Dixon only gave
up 19 points in the points chase. --Skip Allum
FRUSTRATION FOR CORY MAC
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In the first round, Cory McClenathan, from Anaheim, Calif.,
driver of the Henkelman & Baca Motorsports Top Fuel Dragster, squared
off against Mark Kinsella, from Humble, Texas. McClenathan had qualified
#8, while Kinsella finished in the 9th position.
The McClenathan-Kinsella match up ended in speculator
fashion with Kinsella going up in a fireball and subsequently exploding
the engine sending parts, big and small, in every direction. McClenathan,
who had crossed the finish line well ahead of Kinsella, was out of harms
way. Kinsella suffered some minor lower back pain from the concussion
of the explosion. McClenathan headed for round two.
Next up for McClenathan was Larry Dixon, undoubtedly the
hottest driver on the circuit to date. With a seemingly flawless run,
Dixon raced to the win light. McClenathan, who smoked the tires, could
only sit and watch Dixon race away to another win.
"We didn't have our stuff together this weekend," reflected
McClenathan. "Every time we tried to go down the track it shook, or
I had to pedal it, or whatever. First round today it ran the 67 (4.67
seconds) at 322 (mph) and I thought we were back on track. So I thought,
let's try to make this thing go a little quicker. So what did it do?
It did the exact same thing it did in Atlanta - it went out there and
smoked the tires real quick in a place where it normally won't do it.
"So Wes (Cerny) is taking the clutch apart, dissecting
everything.I told Wes, 'I can't tell you what it's doing, but I can
tell you it's not right.' So the crew will go through the clutch and
look at everything. I had to pedal it out there and it knocked the blower
off, so now we're hurting parts. -- Mickey Schultz
FUNNY CAR
DENSHAM WANTS TO TURN BACK THE CLOCK
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