Madison: Larry Dixon Friday summary

Top Fuel points leader Larry Dixon No. 15 after first day of qualifying at the Craftsman Nationals.

MADISON, Ill. (June 28) - NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Top Fuel point leader Larry Dixon and the Miller Lite Snake Racing Dragster went through an uncharacteristic day, finding themselves in the No. 15 provisional starting position after the first day of qualifying for the sixth annual Craftsman Nationals from the Gateway International Raceway.

"It seemed that our Miller Lite Dragster was pretty hopped up tonight," said Dixon. "It had a lot of steam in it tonight and we need to calm it down to be able to get it down the track. I have all the faith in the world in Dick LaHaie. They will calm it down and get it going for Saturday.

"Even on the first run it went out there and spun the tires. On the second run tonight the car did it earlier and we thought the track would be tighter and it really wasn't. For tomorrow, we'll go back to the basics on Saturday and get out there and try again."

The Miller Lite driver recorded his best time of the day of 5.104 ET, 209.17 MPH in the first session. On his evening run his powerful dragster took off like a shot before getting too aggressive for conditions and coasted the remaining quarter mile.

Dixon has qualified no worse than sixth this season (Chicago and Columbus) and has six No. 1 qualifying efforts (Pomona, Ca. Gainesville, Fl., Las Vegas, Bristol, Tenn., Englishtown, NJ and Topeka) and a second place effort (Phoenix). He was the No. 2 qualifier last year at GIR with a time of 4.572 seconds.

Two qualifying sessions remain on Saturday (12:00 PM & 3:00 PM ET) while Sunday's eliminations are scheduled for an 11 AM CT start. ESPN2 will air qualifying highlights starting at 9 pm EDT with a two-hour program on Saturday, June 29.

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