Never mind the towering inferno blazing behind his cockpit, Larry Dixon won his second Top Fuel event in five final rounds. He couldn’t wait to get out of the car, not to avoid the danger, but to throw his hands in elation.

Yes, it’s been that kind of season.

“While everyone was getting excited about the final round and everything I’m trying to put my fire suit out because my shit was on fire,” Dixon said, cracking a smile when discussing his victory over Hot Rod Fuller. “The guys on the rescue team we’re telling me to stop running and I was like I will once I get to the hose. It burned the chutes off of it and everything. We left it all out there on the track. The car nosed over really bad on the other end and I was just like it’s going to blow up and I’m not at the finish line yet so I saw the win light come on and my car blew up. But that’s all I cared about.” Never mind the towering inferno blazing behind his cockpit, Larry Dixon won his second Top Fuel event in five final rounds. He couldn’t wait to get out of the car, not to avoid the danger, but to throw his hands in elation.

Yes, it’s been that kind of season.

“While everyone was getting excited about the final round and everything I’m trying to put my fire suit out because my shit was on fire,” Dixon said, cracking a smile when discussing his victory over Hot Rod Fuller. “The guys on the rescue team we’re telling me to stop running and I was like I will once I get to the hose. It burned the chutes off of it and everything. We left it all out there on the track. The car nosed over really bad on the other end and I was just like it’s going to blow up and I’m not at the finish line yet so I saw the win light come on and my car blew up. But that’s all I cared about.”

The NHRA AAA Finals in Pomona, Ca., represented Dixon’s 43rd national event win of his career and second of the 2008 season.

“We went up there in the final round and they hopped it up and we certainly needed it because Hot Rod had been cutting good lights all day,” Dixon admitted. “Their car was running real well. The way it blew up, we obviously left everything out there on the track.”

This weekend’s final round was special for Dixon, who hadn’t been in the finals of the season-ending event since his rookie season of 1995 when he lost to the late Blaine Johnson.

“Just being able to win, I think helps out the team’s morale,” Dixon said of winning the final event and pulling into second place in championship points. “Finishing second, I hate finishing second. But as far as the bonus money that gets passed around to the guys on the team, the difference between fourth or fifth place up to second place; that’s monumental, the difference. The guys and I were racing to finish second today and I’m just happy for them.”

Even Don Prudhomme was animated, pumped up and doling out high fives for anyone within arm’s reach.

“When you take those fifteen events out of the mix, that’s only nine for the rest of us,” Dixon added. “So winning two out of nine -- is just huge. If he was that animated then he knows how hard it was just to win two events this season.”

Of course, in the midst of the press conference came the perennial, “What are you doing next season inquiry.”

“Who cares? Are you serious? Let me enjoy the moment,” Dixon said.