Larry Dixon has won a lot of races, but until Sunday afternoon in the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals a victory at Maple Grove Raceway had eluded the driver of the Al Anabi Racing dragster.

“Great,” answered Dixon when asked just how this win felt. “This is such a historic race track and I've always wanted to win here. You know my dad won here, you know points meets, running Top Fuel back in the day, and I just love coming to this track. God, you know, for just one reason or another we've never been able to close the deal and finally, you know you're halfway down the track and you're still...I've been halfway down the track thinking you're gonna win and then you break an input shaft and lose and so like just to see the win light come on it was just, it was awesome.

Larry Dixon has won a lot of races, but until Sunday afternoon in the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals a victory at Maple Grove Raceway had eluded the driver of the Al Anabi Racing dragster.

“Great,” answered Dixon when asked just how this win felt. “This is such a historic race track and I've always wanted to win here. You know my dad won here, you know points meets, running Top Fuel back in the day, and I just love coming to this track. God, you know, for just one reason or another we've never been able to close the deal and finally, you know you're halfway down the track and you're still...I've been halfway down the track thinking you're gonna win and then you break an input shaft and lose and so like just to see the win light come on it was just, it was awesome.

I mean you know, obviously the amount of talent we raced today, it was strong. I told the TV guys down there we raced...I raced one of the oldest guys in drag racing. I said I raced two of the youngest guys and probably the best guy in the class. And to be able to get win lights against all of them, I'm just...I feel very fortunate right now.

The most difficult opponent Dixon faced all day was time. Water seeping through the track forced a four hour plus delay as the NHRA safety safari worked so hard to resolve the problem. In the meantime, Dixon was on “eggshells”.

“You can't do a whole lot, you're just kinda waiting,” said Dixon when asked what he did during the delay. “And, it's tough. I mean it's like...it's tough on the guys. They got all their work done and then they're hanging out watching HBO and all that. And me, I'm walking on eggshells. It's like...how you try to prepare for race day, it's almost like a boxer, you know. So you kinda like, you watch your diet, you watch your sleep and everything to get ready for the main event fight, and then we run the first two rounds or the first round and you take a TV time out for three hours. You know, it's tough.

“I hate it. You know I wish we could have (raced) earlier, but safety wise it was a great call on their part. You got better racing out of it once the track cooled down, the cars could run better and it was better racing. And they didn't have any safety issues because of the water. So I think it was a great call, it's a bold call, but it's still a great one.”

Dixon got by Chris Karamesines in the first round, Tony Schumacher in the second, Shawn Langdon in the third and then beat Spencer Massey, 3.899 to 8.691 in the final round. Massey replaced Dixon in the Don Prudhomme dragster when Dixon left to drive for Alan Johnson at the end of last year.

MAPLE GROOVE – Some drivers go into a event with trepidation if they've never won at that particular facility. Not Dixon and definitely not at Maple Grove.

“Not here,” he answered, “Cause I like...you know we went to the finals here last year. And so I like coming to this race. And so you're excited, you hope, you never know when it's your turn, you know you're only on the track three and a half seconds, so it could flip either way. But, you just hope today, you know, this is the weekend. And it was.”

ROUND AFTER ROUND AFTER ROUND - Adding the four rounds Dixon raced this weekend, he is now the leader in Top Fuel with 798 rounds raced, three more than Joe Amato's 795.

“I heard Bob Frey say that, I didn't know that,” admitted Dixon when asked about the stat.  “That's...I don't even know what to say, I mean that doesn't seem like that should be about me, you know. It should be about Garlits or Amato or somebody like that. Those are the guys that I looked up to growing up and just being in the same conversation as a Joe Amato, I'm very flattered and honored at the same time.” 

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