Dixon off to slow start in Top Fuel duel

Wednesday, March 31, 2004 | 9:29 a.m.

RACE WEEK SCHEDULE

7 a.m. -- Pit and spectator gates open

8 a.m. -- Sportsman qualifying

7-8 p.m. -- NHRA Autograph Session, ESPN Zone at New York New York hotel-casino

7 a.m. -- Pit and spectator gates open

8 a.m. -- Sportsman qualifying and eliminations

1:30 p.m. -- Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car qualifying

2:45 p.m. -- Nitro Harley qualifying

3 p.m. -- Pro Stock qualifying

3:30 p.m. -- Top Fuel Dragster and Funny Car qualifying

4:30 p.m. -- Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car qualifying

5:45 p.m. -- Nitro Harley qualifying

6 p.m. -- Pro Stock qualifying

6:30 p.m. -- Top Fuel Dragster and Funny Car qualifying

7 a.m. -- Pit and spectator gates open

8 a.m. -- Sportsman eliminations

11:30 a.m. -- Pro Stock qualifying

Noon -- Top Fuel Dragster and Funny Car qualifying

1 p.m. -- Nitro Harley qualifying

1:15 p.m. -- Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car qualifying

2:30 p.m. -- Pro Stock qualifying

3 p.m. -- Top Fuel Dragster and Funny Car qualifying

4 p.m. -- Nitro Harley qualifying

4:15 p.m. -- Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car first-round eliminations

5:15 p.m. -- Sportsman eliminations

7 a.m. -- Pit and spectator gates open

10 a.m. -- Pre-race ceremonies begin

11 a.m. -- Final eliminations

Larry Dixon is in an unfamiliar position coming into this weekend's fifth annual NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

After winning back-to-back Top Fuel championships in 2002 and 2003 and leading the points standings after 45 of 46 races the past two seasons, Dixon is ninth in points after three races. The last time Dixon was this low in the standings was in October 1999 -- a span of 98 races.

With 20 races remaining in the 2004 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series season, Dixon said it was far too early to be reaching for the panic button. In fact, Dixon said he was as confident as ever in his Don Prudhomme-owned Miller Lite team.

"I think Dick LaHaie, our crew chief, really has been working the last couple of races on this new engine combination that we're running and it really shows," Dixon said. "I think we were three- or four-thousandths (of a second) from being the quickest car at Gainesville, so the car is there -- it just needs some more runs to refine it."

Dixon, who won 17 races in the past two seasons and has 33 career victories, said it was not unnerving to see eight other drivers ahead of him in the Top Fuel standings for the first time in more than four years.

"There were a lot of years that I drove that we didn't have the capabilities to win and over the past two and a half years, we certainly have -- like you can roll into any race and know that you've got a car to win," Dixon said. "So I have to go through a couple races without that capability; we'll be OK.

"We have the same group of people working on that car that won us the last two championships. I still have a lot of faith and a lot of confidence and there's nothing unnerving about that. I think the car has really showed signs of really running well -- not just all right, but really running good -- so I'm excited about it. There are eight people ahead of me in the points and I wouldn't trade places with any of them."

Although he had two second-round elimination losses to open the season and bowed out in the first round at the Mac Tools NHRA Gatornationals March 21 in Gainesville, Fla., Dixon's confidence is buoyed this week by the knowledge that he is coming to a track where he has enjoyed success the past two years.

Dixon swept both Las Vegas races in 2003 and returns this weekend as the defending Top Fuel champion of the SummitRacing.com Nationals.

"Even the first couple of times we went to Vegas, I think with the exception of one time, I thought we really had a car that could win the event but for one reason or another, it didn't happen," Dixon said. " We won three in a row there and I've always been excited about going to that track and running that race."

Dixon credited LaHaie as the main reason for his success at The Strip.

"It's tricky conditions and it really tests the crew chiefs because of the altitude and how the weather sometimes will play into it," Dixon said of the Las Vegas races. "For me, you've got to go up to the starting line and try to cut a light whether you're in cloud cover or sun or at elevation or sea level, but for the crew chiefs it's really challenging.

"I think that we've got one of the best guys out there in Dick LaHaie so that's one of the reasons I like going to Vegas."

Dixon, a second-generation Top Fuel racer, already has exceeded most of the goals he set for himself when he first started racing Prudhomme's dragster in 1995. But after winning 33 races and a pair of NHRA championships, Dixon said his success has only made him hungrier for more.

"I've gotten more out of life and racing than I ever thought I would get so I feel pretty blessed to have been able to have had, so far, a pretty good career and done well and been around some great people in the sport," he said. "My dad (Larry Sr.) raced for the better part of 20 years and he won one national event so to have won 33 so far, I'm pretty proud of what our team has been able to do.

"Ten years ago, I just wanted to be able to drive a Top Fuel car. Once you get that, you want to have a chance of winning a race and then you do that ... and you just want to keep going. Once you (start winning races), you go after a championship. That took a long time and we were able to do that. Once you've got a taste of winning, you always want to taste it."