And now, news, notes, quotes and other info from Bristol.

GIVE BRANDON THAT ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARD NOW!

David Allio photo

He may not be in the driver's seat this year, but Kenny Bernstein is still intense as he watches son Brandon go down the track. (Jeff Burk photos)

Brandon Bernstein won his third event of the 2003 season by defeating Doug Herbert in the final round with, thanks to the talents of Tim and Kim Richards, a stellar 4.625 lap in what was supposed to be the bad lane. The team got the chance to win after Brandon demonstrated that he can "pedal" with the veterans and he won a couple of rounds he could have easily lost. The 30-year-old Rookie of the Year outran Herbert's Snap-on Tools dragster, which recorded numbers of 4.880 at 282.72.

With the win Bernstein moved past Larry Dixon into the points lead -- a first in his career -- bumping Dixon out of the top spot for the first time in 28 events.

DIXON'S TEAM DOES THE UNREAL

On his last qualifying lap late, late Saturday night Larry Dixon had some equipment failure that in turn caused the rear wing to fail and you know the rest: car breaks in two pieces,

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yadda, yadda, yadda, and he walked away! Great drama and a great example of how safe the cars are. But more impressive was the effort put forth by Dick LaHaie and his crew. They took the spare chassis out of the "attic" of their transporter and overnight assembled a complete car. They were still putting the finishing touches on the motor in the lanes at 11:45 AM but at 12:30 they fired the car, made a burnout and ran a stout 4.600 winning lap. (Lead photo by Jeff Burk) Now that is impressive!

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