Atlanta: Herbert final report

Commerce, Ga., May 6, 2001 - It was one of those throttle-pedaling, smoke-filled quarter-mile runs that are fun for fans to watch, but tough on the Top Fuel drivers.

Doug Herbert and his Snap-on dragster battled Larry Dixon under those circumstances Sunday in the quarterfinals of the Advance Auto Parts Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, and Dixon won.

"If our car had gone as far as his did off the starting line before the tires started smoking, we could've beat him," Herbert said. "He went about 200 feet and we went about 10. We tried a few things to keep the tires from spinning down track. We hopped it up for that run but learned we couldn't hop it up that much at the starting line."

Dixon reached the finish line in 5.796 seconds at 268.01 mph and Herbert followed at 6.357 at 236.96 mph.

Herbert started the day from the No. 6 position after posting a 4.632-second, 312.50-mph run.

He is eighth in points with 319 going into the SuperNationals, May 18-23, at Englishtown, N.J.

Qualified: No. 6, 4.632 seconds at 312.50 mph.

First round: Herbert, 4.921 at 281.13 def. Bruce Litton; Quarterfinals: Dixon def. Herbert

Race winners: Mike Dunn, Top Fuel; , Frank Pedregon, Funny Car; Jim Yates, Pro Stock.