Dallas: Larry Dixon Saturday summary

DIXON DRIVES MILLER LITE DRAGSTER TO NO. 7 POSITION AT DALLAS

ENNIS, Texas (Oct. 8, 2005) – Larry Dixon, NHRA's winningest active Top Fuel driver, qualified his Miller Lite dragster in the No. 7 position Saturday at Texas Motorplex after recording a qualifying-best run of 4.514-seconds at the O'Reilly Fall Nationals.

Dixon posted the 4.514-second effort on Friday's second qualifying session. It was the second quickest run that the two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion has posted in 15 attempts at the famed Texas drag strip (4.500 – 2001). On Saturday's first qualifying session, Dixon used a tune-up from veteran crew chief Dick LaHaie to drive the Miller Lite/Ameriquest dragster to the quickest run of the session, 4.544 seconds at 313.00 mph. Don Prudhomme's Miller Lite team concluded qualifying when Dixon carded a 4.546, 325.14 pass to finish seventh in the order after recording three solid 4.5-second elapsed times during qua! lifying.

"I think that on the first run we were looking for a high 4.40, but we had some mechanical issues that prevented us from running that number," Dixon said. "We calmed the tune-up down, and got the car down the track and ended up being the second quickest of the final session. We would have liked to have qualified better, but I'm sure there were other's that would have liked to have qualified better too."

For the second consecutive week, Dixon will battle former NHRA Top Fuel champion Scott Kalitta (1994-95), who qualified 10th, in the opening round of Top Fuel eliminations, which kick-off at 11 a.m. (CT) at Texas Motorplex.

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