Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Retiring Bernstein chasing down Dixon

Thursday, July 25, 2002 | 9:39 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Kenny Bernstein and Larry Dixon staged a thrilling NHRA Top Fuel championship battle in 2001, with Bernstein emerging with his second Top Fuel title and sixth overall.

Despite Dixon's early-season threat to run away with this year's championship, it looks as if Bernstein is positioning himself to close out his career with one more classic title run.

After trailing Dixon by 259 points 11 races into the season, Bernstein has taken advantage of Dixon's midseason stumble to close within 119 points with 10 events remaining.

Dixon failed to qualify at the Sears Craftsman Nationals near St. Louis on June 30 and suffered a first-round loss last weekend in Denver. Meanwhile, Bernstein, won in St. Louis and advanced to the semifinals in Denver.

"We were pretty nervous during qualifying" Bernstein said. "We were having a tough time chasing our gremlins and we were beginning to think we might be left with the crumbs at this event. But (crew chief Tim Richards) was able to gather it up and we had an opportunity to walk through the door Larry Dixon left open after his first-round loss.

"We were fortunate to go enough rounds that we shaved another 38 points off Dixon's lead."

Bernstein, who will retire from driving at the end of this season, will attempt to gain more ground when the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series rolls into Kent, Wash., for this weekend's Lucas Oil NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.

"We are hopeful that we can make a good run at the championship for the rest of the season," Bernstein said. "But I do want to emphasize that Dixon has a strong team and they'll get it all together again soon.

"In the meantime, there's another armada of teams out there that are gathering steam and make it tough to get to winner's circle. We're just happy to be on the positive side, gaining points now."

Anderson is one of only three Pro Stock drivers to have won twice through the first 13 races of the season and has failed to qualify at only one event. Only two drivers (Warren Johnson and Ron Krisher) have qualified for every event.

"It's unreal," Anderson said. "There are more and more guys coming into this class every year and you just wonder if they think it looks easy.

"It's very stressful though. It seems to me that qualifying has been more stressful than the actual race day. You can't race if you don't qualify and it's so difficult to qualify anymore. You've got three or four hundredths (of a second) separating the pack -- you can't screw up even once."

Anderson, who partnered with Las Vegas' George Marnell for six years before striking out on his own before this season, is third in Pro Stock points and trails front-runner Jim Yates by only 60 points.