Prudhomme celebrates 100 himself

Monday, April 18, 2005 | 9:33 a.m.

The celebration was more than a year in the making and lasted less than an hour.

Larry Dixon gave drag-racing legend Don "the Snake" Prudhomme his 100th career victory as a driver and team owner by defeating Doug Kalitta in the Top Fuel final of Sunday's NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Before the fizz had gone out the champagne, however, Dixon and Prudhomme already had turned their attention to the next race.

"Now we've got to work on 101," Dixon said as he met the media about an hour after the victory.

"Now we've got to think about winning the championship -- that's what it's all about," a subdued Prudhomme added.

Prudhomme, who won 49 NHRA races during his 32-year career as a driver in the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes and now has 51 as an owner, entered the 2004 season needing four wins from his drivers to reach the century mark. Dixon won two races last season but Prudhomme's two Funny Car drivers were shut out.

After scaling back to a two-car operation this season, Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson Jr. gave Prudhomme his 99th win in the season-opening race, and Dixon added No. 100 on Sunday.

Prudhomme downplayed the significance of reaching the 100-win milestone.

"We don't really keep track of all those statistics," Prudhomme said. "We're just out here trying to win the race.

"I don't mean to make light of it or anything -- it's cool."

The victory also was the 36th of Dixon's career, which moved him ahead of "Big Daddy" Don Garlits into eighth place on the NHRA's all-time win list and sole possession of third place in the Top Fuel category.

"Obviously, it's an honor," Dixon said, "but it's not a fair comparison because if you look at his starts versus my starts, I've probably got 200 more starts than he does and he's got 35 wins and I've got 36.

"He's still the number-one guy. When I was a kid, in dragsters, he was the guy that pretty much walked on water. Garlits is THE guy -- period."

In this decade, however, Dixon is THE guy when it comes to the Top Fuel category at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Sunday's final-round appearance was his fifth in 10 starts here and his fourth victory in Las Vegas.

Dixon's put together a 4.59-second run at 326.40 mph in the final against Kalitta's 4.648 at 319.52.

Whit Bazemore (Funny Car) and Dave Connolly (Pro Stock) also were winners Sunday in the pro categories.

Bazemore outdueled rookie Tony Bartone in the Funny Car final with a run of 4.976 at 315.12 to Bartone's 4.983 at 303.23 for his second victory of the season and 19th of his career.

Bazemore, who took over the points lead with the win, said he was proud he was able to stay focused after previous leader John Force lost in the first round.

"It's hard to see that right in front of you and stay focused," Bazemore said of Force's loss. "But that's the job, that's the way the sport is, so we're kind of used to it. That's what a team effort is all about and it's starting to really jell here at Schumacher Racing."

Bazemore, who trailed Force by 14 points coming into the race, leaves Las Vegas with a 61-point edge over the 13-time Funny Car champion.

"We're kind of pinching ourselves," Bazemore said. "I mean, I don't know if we deserve to have a 60-something-point lead over Force right now but, look, we're here; we've got two wins this year and that's the way it's going.

"We've just got to maintain our focus and continue to work on our tuneup on our car and get it where it needs to be because (crew chief Lee Beard) will admit it's not there."

Connolly also used his victory over Greg Anderson in the final to assume the Pro Stock points lead. Connolly, who won his second event of the season, leads Warren Johnson by 9 points after five of 23 races.

Anderson, the two-time defending NHRA Pro Stock champion, won 15 of 23 races last season but has yet to reach the winner's circle in 2005.

"Obviously, Greg didn't scare everybody away over the winter," Connolly said. "Everybody just went back to their shop and got to work and the whole field has tightened up so much. It takes luck and good runs every pass to make it to the winner's circle.

"Fortunately for us, we've made it to three finals (this season) and we've got two wins. I just can't say enough about the (Bullet Motorsports) team."