If you get close enough to see Scott Kalitta's hand and notice some scribbling on it, it probably says "Powerade." When he won two titles, his check came from R.J. Reynolds with the Winston brand logo on it. "One of my biggest hurdles," he said, anticipating his return to competiton, "is to remember to say Powerade instead of Winston. I'm going to write that on the back of my hand."

Dixon forgot his line -- one of the best from the archives -- about how it feels not to win at Indianapolis.

Quizzed by Bob Frey, Dixon guessed. "Screw the points?"

No.

"I want the win?"

Zero for two.

"It feels like somebody ran over my dog," prompted Frey.

"Yeah," Dixon said. "I would take a win and no points versus a runner-up and no points. This is it. This is what it's all about. My dad never raced a full tour, but this is the one race we would tow back and race at. Everybody who was somebody used to come to this race. It's still got has that feeling to me."

He said he "knew better" than to think that winning at IRP was a piece of cake, even though the U.S. Nationals was one of his four rookie-season victories in 1995. He saw as a crew member back in the 1980s just how much trouble it could be for boss Don Prudhomme, who won it six times in both fuel categories.

As for the first of his two Indianapolis wins -- the other was in 2001 -- Dixon recalled, "I don't think we dazzled 'em with performance, but we got four win lights. Nobody cares how you win it."

By the numbers

NHRA media-relations mathematician Gabrielle Stevenson came up with some little-known numbers for U.S. Nationals fans. The five-day event will feature the following:

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5,500 gallons of nitromethane used in four categories

1,000 competitors

745 event workers

2,500 boxes of supplies for NHRA and race teams shipped to the track

6,000 runs made down the quarter-mile track (1,500 miles)

18 cameras used by ESPN15,000 bottles of water

17,000 Coca-Cola soft drinks at concessions

5,000 Powerade's NHRA bottle4 transport trucks used at the track to hold all the Coke product for the weekend

3,000 gallons of oil used during the race

780,000 pages of Daily Dragster

25,000 number of hot dogs and hamburgers stocked at IRP concessions (DRO: One pork tenderloin will feed everyone for the entire event.)

30 number of NHRA support vehicles

13 hours of U.S. Nationals race coverage on the ESPN family of networks

282 sets of tires used in the four pro categories

207,760 dollars spent on tires for the four pro categories

100,000 number of T-shirts stocked in souvenir stands (DRO: Al Hofmann still swears they're all John Force's)

160 public address speakers

5 different announcers working the race

50 acres available for spectator parking (DRO: Take note, Seattle)

150 acres used for race team parking

360 number of golf carts (DRO: This is not good news. We will have a hard time finding the one on which we left our camera equipment overnight!)