Like the sun setting over the hills of Eastern Pennsylvania which surround Maple Grove Raceway, the chances of catching Larry Dixon for the title of Top Fuel Champion are sinking fast for Cory McClenathan and Tony Schumacher.

With two events remaining, Dixon holds an 89-point lead over McClenathan and an 154-point lead over Schumacher.

Dixon, who is now 12 for 12 in final round appearances, said winning this race made up for the mistakes he made which led to a first round loss in Dallas at the last event.

Cruz Pedregon, in the Snap-on Toyota, stunned a full house of boisterous drag racing fans at Maple Grove Raceway for the NHRA Toyo Tires Nationals with a start to finish win over new Funny Car point leader Matt Hagan.

The win by Pedregon lessened the pain for all three of the Force Racing drivers who went out in the first round.

“We were flawless, with the exception of one round, and that is a credit to the team,” said Pedregon of his day. “Hagan had a little bit on everybody. I didn't think a 4.13 was going to win. We were going for broke because we thought that unless we could run a mid oh we knew this guy was going to send us packing. He must have had problems.”

Hagan did have some minor problems in the final round run. 

Dave Connolly took a breather from Pro Stock racing in 2009 and throughout most of 2010 and returned to his sportsman roots, and his contributions to the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series are paying off now that he has returned to the professional ranks.

Driving the Dave Connolly Racing Pro Stock Cobalt backed by sponsors including IDG, 3M, and Makita, Connolly squared off with longtime rival Greg Anderson in the final round of the Toyo Tools NHRA Nationals in Reading and emerged with a Pro Stock trophy in hand for the first time since beating then-teammate Jeg Coughlin Jr. in the money round at the now defunct Virginia NHRA Nationals in 2008.

In the Maple Grove Raceway money round, Connolly was first off the starting line by two-thousandths, .024 to .026, and cashed in at the top end with a very narrow holeshot victory over three-time world champion Anderson, 6.580 to 6.579. The win was particularly impressive when the newness of Connolly's entire crew was taken into consideration.

Richard Freeman, owner of the racing conglomerate, Elite Motorsports, will be back behind the wheel in his Pro Stock GXP for the final two events on the NHRA tour. Freeman has proven himself the capable driver for several years but, more recently, turned to team owner and sponsor within the Elite Motorsports family. This year Elite Motorsports has helped field a number of cars through ride and drive or sponsorship programs included NHRA Pro Stock drivers Rickie Jones, Richie Stevens and Mike Trumble. The sponsorship with Stevens concluded at the NHRA Fall Nationals in Dallas and Jones discontinued his NHRA Pro Stock season after Indy. Freeman will take over the responsibilities of representing Elite at the final two events.

Jeremy Maples led Saturday’s Race of Champions winner’s taking home the trophy in the Electronics class for the NHRA South Central Division Summit Racing Series Finals at Texas Raceway.

Maples drove his ’04 dragster past Jordan Echols, Plano, Texas, with a 7,129 second lap at 186.41 mph. Echols crossed the finish line at 132.67 mph in his ’67 Camaro.

In the No Electronics class, Jacob Pitt came away with the win over Rick Hudel.  Pitt, Manfield, Texas, went 10.254 seconds at 103.04 mph with his ’72 Challenger while Huydel, San Angelo, Texas, left early with a red light start handing the win to Pitt.

Even though the 9th Annual FueLab NMCA World Street Finals was held at a different venue this year, the racing action and car counts were stellar. With Memphis Motorsports Park closed, Gateway International Raceway in St. Louis was the battleground this year, and when combined with the 4th annual GM Performance Parts LSX Shootout, it made for a tremendous event to end the 2010 season.     

In Scorpion Performance Pro Street, Troy Coughlin topped the field with a 6.27, but it was Chris Rini who prevailed at Gateway. After getting past a redlighting John Sullivan, Rini put together a killer 6.16 at 234 mph to take out Troy Coughlin, advancing him to the final to meet Tony Williams. Rini also is the 2010 Pro Street champion.  

Mickey Thompson Tires Super Street 10.5W drew a killer field of eleven racecars, at the end of the first round of qualifying Bill Lutz ran a 6.68, but actually hurt the engine in the process and ended up losing in the second round. It came down to Nick Scavo and Frank Mewshaw in the final, but Mewshaw was a bit lazy out of the gate, allowing Scavo to get the win. Mewshaw is unofficially the Super Street World Champion for 2010.

For seven consecutive events Andrew Hines has been to the final round, but after being humbled for three consecutive races by Rookie of the Year competitor LE Tonglet, the Screamin' Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson rider finally got a little revenge and issued a reminder as to why he has held the Pro Stock Motorcycle points lead since the Brainerd event in mid-August. In a very close final at the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals, Hines beat his opponent off the starting line by .023-second and clocked a 6.916 to Tonglet's 6.913 to score the holeshot win.

"It was great, we put a lot of qualifying points on LE coming into Sunday," said Hines. "I'm trying to rely on some of the other competitors out there to take him out early, but we keep matching up in the final round and it's been tough with that little blue bike beating us the last few races. We were wondering what it was going to take to get it done. I knew I needed to be quick off the tree. I was aiming for a .020, and the bike left perfect, just like it needed to. That finish line couldn't get their quick enough. When I saw that win light, it was one of the prettiest win lights I've seen in a long time."

Attitude's CompetitionPlus.com provides quick hit coverage of the NHRA Toyo Tires Nationals hosted by Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa. Follow along for news and notes from the event.

Larry Dixon raced to his 12th Top Fuel victory of the season Sunday at the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.

Cruz Pedregon, Dave Connolly and Andrew Hines also were winners at the fourth of six playoff races in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship.

Dixon was on and off the throttle on his Al-Anabi Racing dragster to beat top championship rival Cory McClenathan in a wild final round. As both dragsters lost traction at points down the track, Dixon managed to cross the finish line first with a 4.906 second run at 295.34 mph performance, to hold off McClenathan’s charging FRAM dragster, which finished in 5.103 at 199.70.

Dixon’s dragster lost traction first, then McClenathan pulled away, only to have the blower belt break on his machine just before the finish line. That’s when Dixon decided to get back on the gas and his determination ultimately paid off in the photo finish.

Final round-by-round results from the 26th annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, the 21st of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series: