Charlotte II: Toyota final report

DIXON TAKES 11TH TOP FUEL WIN OF THE SEASON; PEDREGON DOMINATES FUNNY CAR RANKS AT CHARLOTTE

CONCORD, N.C. (September 19, 2010) -- Larry Dixon stormed to his 11th victory of the season in the Top Fuel final, while Cruz Pedregon was dominant all weekend in earning his first Funny Car win of the 2010 campaign as Toyota drivers swept the Nitro classes in Sunday's NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series' O'Reilly Auto Parts Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord, North Carolina.

Dixon's win is his third consecutive and second in a row in the opening two rounds of the Countdown to the Championship playoffs. It also extends his championship lead to 85 points with four races remaining. The two-time Top Fuel champion traveled a difficult path to victory, defeating the current second, third and fourth-place drivers in the title race in Cory McLenathan, Tony Schumacher and Doug Kalitta. Ironically, Dixon's dominating run in the Top Fuel series began after losing in the second round at Charlotte earlier in the season. Since that event, he has won 10 of 15 races and advanced to the semi-finals or finals in 13 of the 15 events.

For Pedregon, the victory in the final completed a dream weekend. The two-time Funny Car champ earned his first number one qualifying position of the season on Saturday as he topped three of the four qualifying sessions during the weekend. He then defeated Jim Smith, brother Tony Pedregon, Jeff Arend and Jack Beckman during today's eliminations.JIn the process, he registered the two fastest passes of the day and three of the top four during elimination rounds.

In other Top Fuel action involving Toyota-sponsored drivers, Antron Brown, who had qualified second, advanced to round two before being eliminated, while both Shawn Langdon and Morgan Lucas each lost in the first round. Brown climbs back up to sixth-place in the Countdown race, while Langdon falls to seventh and Lucas to ninth.JJoining Pedregon in the Funny Car ranks was Del Worsham, who was eliminated in the first round after a strong fifth in qualifying.

The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series returns next weekend with the third of six Countdown races at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex, Sept. 24-26.

-source: toyota motorsports