"Third Time's a Charm"
In his third outing with the Alan Johnson Al-Anabi Race team, Larry Dixon won his fourth Top Fuel title at the AC Delco Gatornationals, sending Cory McClenathan to the trailer with a final round win. Dixon was the number one qualifier. He says he's most impressed by the level of preparation that new crew chief Jason McCullogh and Johnson brought to the team. The victory brings him to third in points behind point leader Antron Brown.
Bob Tasca III won one for the "Blue Oval" gang. Tasca defeated friend Tony Pedregon to notch his first career victory. Tasca's day job is at his family Ford dealership in Rhode Island, so getting a note from Ford CEO Alan Mullaly was big for him, as was the number of text messages from the Ford Racing Boss, Brian Wolfe. Tasca reminded me that his grandfather used to say "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday". While the Ford Mustangs in the Tasca dealership are light years removed from Bob's Funny Car, Bob says there is as much off track involvement to drive sales of Motorcraft parts and Quick Lane services as there is with the nuts and bolts of the racing program.
Jason Line added to his Pro Stock point lead with a very quick reaction time win ("hole shot") in the final round over Allen Johnson. That's two of three races so far in 2009. Like many drivers, Jason has other duties for the Keith Black Pro Stock team--his is running the dynamometer to see how much horsepower can be wrung from the 2009 Pontiac GXP. Line will be testing here tomorrow so he can work on his starts from the starting line, which make for better reaction times. Reaction times are what wins drag races, along with big time reliable horsepower.
Top five in each Pro Category
Top Fuel--
Antron Brown/259-1 win
Brandon Bernstein/239
Larry Dixon/206-1 win
Doug Kalitta/194-1 win
Tony Schumacher/181
Funny Car--
Ron Capps/263-2 wins
Bob Tasca III/225-1 win
Del Worsham/188
Robert Hight/164
Mike Neff/164
Pro Stock--
Jason Line/285-2 wins
Allen Johnson/228
Jeg Coughlin/223-1 win
Greg Anderson/212
Mike Edwards/211
We'll join you from Sebring later this week with coverage from the 57 th edition of the 12 Hours of Sebring.
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