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NHRA
NHRA: Dixon A Perfect 10 In Indy
Larry Dixon kept his perfect final round streak alive Monday by racing to his 10th win of the season at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals.
Rob Geiger  | http://www.go2geiger.com  |  Posted September 06, 2010  
It was win number 10 for Dixon on Monday. (Go2Geiger.com)
Current Full Throttle Top Fuel points leader Larry Dixon made a huge statement during eliminations of the 56th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals by not only winning the opening race of the Countdown to the Championship, but making it a perfect 10 for 10 in final-round appearances this season.

As incredible as that statistic is, Dixon isn't concerned with it. Like any other drag racer, Dixon says winning Indy is one of the most important things one can do in one's career.

"Indy is enough for me," Dixon said. "It just means so much to me personally. We've raced here for a lot of years. Nothing against Phoenix or Atlanta but I'd trade all them for an Indy win."

Dixon's Al-Anabi Top Fuel dragster ran more like a bracket car than a nitro car during eliminations Monday, running in the low 3.8-second range all day, including in the final round against Cory McClenathan. The veteran racer is closely chasing Dixon in the championship hunt and Dixon knows just how tough McClenathan's team has been all season.

"They've been low (elapsed time) a lot of the sessions and they're second in the points," Dixon said. "A lot of the talk is about me and Tony Schumacher but it seems I'm always racing Cory and he's not going away.

"That Fram car is a great car and that's a great team. They are doing a great job. Alan Johnson and Jason McCulloch and our Al-Anabi team were just a little bit better this week."

This is the fourth time Dixon has won the U.S. Nationals, but the first time in five years. On-track rival, Tony Schumacher, has dominated this race for the past five years and Dixon is glad to be able to retake the title.

"Winning Indianapolis is big, especially when Tony wins it every year," Dixon said. "There's no jealousy or anything, there's a lot of times I've gotten to race him for the win in Indy and we just weren't good enough to get it done."

Defending U.S. Nationals champ Ashley Force-Hood had been struggling all year to get her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang to the winner's circle but that all changed when she drove around her dad, 14-time champion John Force, in the final round of Funny Car.

"This has just been an amazing day," Force-Hood said. "This win may have even been bigger than last year because we've struggled so much we can't even get out of first and second round. Plus, we came in the countdown in eighth place."

Force-Hood knows the Countdown is the most important part of the season, so her team made the decision to start fresh and forget the struggles of earlier in the year.

"Our team is staying positive because coming in here you kind of get a second start to your season," Force-Hood said. "We came into the race saying let's put the past behind us, see what we can do here, and kick off the rest of the season."

Force-Hood recognized the on track rivalry of John Force Racing and Don Schumacher racing came to a head during the semifinals.

"The toughest round for us was easily the semifinals, that’s the Schumacher team whose our on-track rivals," Force-Hoods said. "To have Jack Beckman and Matt Hagan against dad and me, that's one of the ideal stories. It could have gone our way or it could have not gone our way."

Force-Hood is savoring her back-to-back victories at the U.S. Nationals without worrying too much about the rest of the Countdown. She's hoping that winning Indy is a sign of good things to come for her Castrol GTX team.

"Who knows that the next few months will bring, I'm just going to enjoy this win," Force-Hood said "At least we can saw we won here, we turned our season around here, hopefully and there's no better place to do it than here in Indy at the first race of the countdown."

Pro Stock winner Greg Stanfield came into the weekend hoping to make the show and go some rounds on Monday. Stanfield wanted to win Indy, just like every other competitor out there, but he wasn't sure that was going to be in the cards for his NitroFish Gear Pontiac GXP.

"Luck was on our side today and we just managed to get the win," Stanfield said. "We were fast off the trailer until the last two rounds, but luckily (final round foe Mike) Edwards was a little off on the tree and we got him. It's not always the fastest car that wins."

Stanfield raced defending NHRA Full Throttle champion Mike Edwards in the final round. Stanfield knows Edwards is always a tough draw even if you've been running well all day and have lane choice.

"Mike is the champion, the best out here," Edwards said. "Everyone said you have lane choice so you have this round won but you can never count him out."

A front-runner for Rookie of the Year, L.E. Tonglet almost didn't make it to the U.S. Nationals due to lack of funding after he hurt his bike at the last event, but thanks to help from a few sources he was able to make the race and take home the best Wally in the sport.

"The U.S. Nationals is the biggest race of the year as everybody says," Tonglet said. "Just to be competing here is unreal especially after Brainerd when we said the season was done. Thanks to Vance and Hines and Fuelpak stepping up to get us here."

Tonglet drove around both bikes on the Vance and Hines team on his way to his first U.S. Nationals victory. Tonglet beat Eddie Kraewic in the semifinals, and new national E.T. record holder Andrew Hines in the final round.

"Anytime you run a Harley you know they're going to lay some numbers down," Tonglet said. "Just to out run a Harley is just crazy, we've been trying to do it all weekend. Thankfully it worked out and we ran a decent number in the finals."

Tonglet won his first race in Chicago earlier this season, and continues to shine throughout in his rookie season. He is not only a contender for the rookie of the year award, he also is a darkhorse contender for the Championship since his win put in him second place in the standings.

Dixon extended his lead as the points leader in Top Fuel while Force-Hood jumped from eighth to fourth and Stanfield moved up to third.
Wesley Wells; 15. Craig Treble; 16. Joe DeSantis.

Monday's final results from the 56th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. The race is the 18th of 23 in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series:

Top Fuel -- Larry Dixon, 3.838 seconds, 319.60 mph def. Cory McClenathan, 3.870 seconds, 319.82 mph.
Funny Car -- Ashley Force Hood, Ford Mustang, 4.141, 308.07 def. John Force, Mustang, 7.246, 91.61.
Pro Stock -- Greg Stanfield, Pontiac GXP, 6.665, 207.59 def. Mike Edwards, GXP, 6.627, 208.75.
Pro Stock Motorcycle -- LE Tonglet, Suzuki, 6.869, 195.22 def. Andrew Hines, Harley-Davidson, 6.962, 194.13.
Pro Modified -- Brad Personett, Chevy Camaro, 6.001, 221.42 def. Joe Baker, Pontiac Firebird, broke.
Top Alcohol Dragster -- Marty Thacker, 5.415, 266.85 def. Shawn Cowie, 5.488, 226.89.
Top Alcohol Funny Car -- Jay Payne, Ford Mustang, 5.648, 256.36 def. Tony Bartone, Mustang, 8.653, 108.16.
Competition Eliminator -- Al Ackerman, Dragster, 8.331, 126.84 def. Bruno Massel, Cobalt, 7.944, 130.47.
Super Stock -- Jimmy DeFrank, Chevy Cobalt, 8.710, 155.33 def. Irvin Johns, Cobalt, 9.228, 141.34.
Stock Eliminator -- Tim Bishop, Pontiac Firehawk, 10.321, 129.08 def. Brad Burton, Pontiac Firebird, 11.132, 101.56.
Super Comp -- Troy Coughlin Jr., Dragster, 8.921, 175.80 def. Don O'Neal, Dragster, 8.954, 155.96.
Super Gas -- Shawn Langdon, Chevy Camaro, 9.922, 163.37 def. David Tatum, Chevy Cavalier, 9.930, 164.71.
Hemi Super Stock Challenge -- Jim Daniels, Dodge Dart, 8.560, 155.74 def. David Barton, Plymouth Barracuda, 8.559, 155.15.



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