GAINESVILLE FINAL QUALIFYING
Larry
Dixon raced to his second consecutive No. 1 qualifying performance of
the season in Top Fuel Saturday at the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals.
Bob Tasca, Mike Edwards and Matt Smith also will lead their categories
into Sunday’s 11 a.m. eliminations at the third of 24 events in the
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. ESPN will provide three hours of
television coverage of the race starting at 3 p.m. (ET) Sunday.
Dixon covered the race distance in 3.886 seconds at 308.28 mph in his
Al-Anabi Racing dragster to earn the 33rd top qualifying effort of his
career and second at Gainesville Raceway. Dixon, also No. 1 at Phoenix
three weeks ago, will face Winternationals winner Doug Kalitta in the
opening round.
Larry
Dixon raced to his second consecutive No. 1 qualifying performance of
the season in Top Fuel Saturday at the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals.
Bob Tasca, Mike Edwards and Matt Smith also will lead their categories
into Sunday’s 11 a.m. eliminations at the third of 24 events in the
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. ESPN will provide three hours of
television coverage of the race starting at 3 p.m. (ET) Sunday.
Dixon covered the race distance in 3.886 seconds at 308.28 mph in his
Al-Anabi Racing dragster to earn the 33rd top qualifying effort of his
career and second at Gainesville Raceway. Dixon, also No. 1 at Phoenix
three weeks ago, will face Winternationals winner Doug Kalitta in the
opening round.
In Saturday’s two sessions Dixon was able to improve on his quick time from Friday, a 3.90-second effort.
“We've
been trying to run an .80 the last two or three runs,” Dixon said. “I'm
glad they found it. I thought it would take an .80-something to stay on
the pole and I'm just glad it came from us. Even when Pro Stock Bikes
and cars are running really good, and we know the air is there it's
always a matter of whether the fuel cars can grip the track. For
tomorrow we're going to have to wait and see if there's cloud cover or
no cover and adjust for those conditions and hope it's right. I'm not
hoping for anything other than four win lights.”
Second-year
driver Tasca earned his first career No. 1 qualifying position in Funny
Car, powering his Motorcraft Quicklane Ford Mustang to a 4.124 at
296.76. He will face veteran Jim Head in the first round.
Tasca held on to the top spot with his time from Friday, and dodged a
late run by Ashley Force Hood, who produced the day’s quickest pass and
moved to second overall with a 4.126 at 301.00 in her Castrol GTX
Mustang.
“It was a little nerve-wracking because you want to be No. 1,” said
Tasca, who becomes 89th driver to earn a No. 1 qualifying position in
the history of the category. “It's all kind of ceremonial because come
tomorrow you need to run your own race. Chris (Cunningham, crew chief)
told me [before his 4.16 on his last pass] that he was only trying to
run a .15 because he didn’t think anyone could beat the .12 and he
needed to get a handle on his tune-up for tomorrow. He was pacing back
and forth but told me he was staying with the .15. We didn't come here
to get sunburned; we came here to win. It's real satisfying to work as
hard as we've worked and, at the end of the day, I owe so much to Chris
Cunningham. He's built an amazing team for us and works tirelessly on
this hot rod.”
In
Pro Stock, Edwards raced to his second consecutive No. 1 qualifying
position of the season and eighth of his career, with a 6.582 at 209.95
in his Penhall/Young Life Pontiac GXP. He will face V. Gaines in the
first round.
“We've just been trying to race the track,” Edwards said. “We're not
making any changes that we didn’t know anything about. We're just
adjusting the car to the track and the tune-up to the air that we have.
The car is just making phenomenal runs; it's just so smooth out there.
If we can keep doing that tomorrow, hopefully we can have a good day.
It's a long season, but we're sure excited about how we've started it.
We've just got to keep the wheels on the car and keep being consistent
at every racetrack.”
Smith earned his 15th No. 1 qualifying position in Pro Stock Motorcycle
and first at Gainesville Raceway by posting a 6.945 at 189.44 on his
Nitro Fish Ultimate Gear Suzuki. He will face Kawasaki rider Ryan
Schnitz in the first round.
“We have a good bike and team this year, and I think you're going to
see a lot of us this year," said Smith, the 2007 world champ who is
riding for Don Schumacher Racing this season. [All of the makes] are
close. It's just how you ride, how good the tune-up is, and who makes
the best lap in the best session, and we did that yesterday.”