Dixon wins in Top Fuel

Monday, April 8, 2002 | 9:28 a.m.

At this rate, Larry Dixon may get his 100th career NHRA victory before John Force.

Dixon earned his third Top Fuel win in four starts this season by defeating Cory McClenathan in the final at the third annual SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals Sunday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Force, meanwhile, was denied his 100th career win when Del Worsham ousted him in the Funny Car quarterfinals.

Dixon, who finished second to Kenny Bernstein for the Top Fuel championship last season, continued his domination of the category this season and extended his lead over Bernstein to 147 points after four races.

It was Dixon's first win against McClenathan in three final-round matchups.

"He beat me so many times in the finals that I was just glad I finally got one," said Dixon, who ran 4.639 seconds at 319.29 mph in the final. "This is just a great win for us."

Although he holds a commanding lead over Bernstein -- who lost to McClenathan in the semifinals -- after four races, Dixon said the points race is a long way from being decided.

"You have to continue this kind of pace for seven, eight more months so you can't get overconfident," Dixon said. "We've got 19 more races to go.

"We had strings like this last year and that didn't buy us a championship so you've got to do it for more than three or four races -- you've got to do it all year."

Force, the No. 1 qualifier, scored a first-round win over Dean Skuza before being tripped up by Worsham in the second round in what proved to be one of the best races of the day. Worsham pulled out to a slim lead off the line and fought off a gaining Force to win by about 4 feet.

"We'll get there," Force said of the magical 100-wins mark. "If it takes 16 years, we'll get there. It's got to come -- next to (being struck by) a lightning bolt or a heart attack (because) I believe in my heart that you can continue to win and it's not about 'you've been here too long.'

"When I won four championships ... (some people said) you could never win 10 because you've just won too many; I proved that theory wrong. But everything has a reversal -- good and bad, high and low -- so there's the other side that if it took you 16 years to win one (expletive) race, it could take 16 to win this frickin' hundredth. If it does, I'm going to shoot myself on national TV."

Although Force's quest for his 100th career win fell short, the 52-year-old did get to visit the winner's circle Sunday as the team owner of winning Funny Car driver Gary Densham.

It was Densham's first win of the season after being eliminated in the second round at each of the first three races this season, and third win in the past 10 races.

This one didn't come easy for Densham, who lost a blower belt on his Ford Mustang just past halftrack and barely held off a charging Tommy Johnson Jr. in the final. Densham ran a 5.409 at 205.13 mph to Johnson's 5.447 at 272.61.

"That last run, after that blower belt broke, was probably the longest three (seconds) of my life because it coasted down there for the last three or four seconds -- it seemed forever.

"By halftrack, I figured I had the race won ... and then the belt breaks. As I went across the finish line, he flashed by and I wasn't sure who got there first, it was that close ... way too close."

Ron Krisher picked up his fourth career Pro Stock win and first of the season with a narrow win over Darrell Alderman. Krisher (7.016 at 197.83) beat Alderman (7.026 at 197.54) to the finish line by a mere 0.0408-seconds -- or about 12 feet.

"Getting by the first round today was like the biggest win I've ever had," said Krisher, who had two first-round losses and a second-round exit in the first three races this season. "I almost had tears in my eyes.

"Once we won the first round, I was pretty confident that things were going to work out. You need some confidence to be successful in this sport and I didn't have any after what had happened the last three races."

Bernstein, who had won the first two NHRA spring races in Las Vegas, was denied a three-peat when he was eliminated by McClenathan in the Top Fuel semifinals.

Other event winners Sunday were Darren Nicholson (Top Alcohol Dragster); Larry Miner (Top Alcohol Funny Car); Brett Brown (Competition Eliminator); Tony De Frank (Super Stock); Jim Hughes (Stock Eliminator); Bart Hiatt (Super Comp); and Jim Hughes (Super Gas)."