For The Herald Bulletin
CLERMONT —
Larry Dixon raced to the qualifying lead Saturday at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil, capping a record-setting day of performances at the world’s most prestigious drag race.
Matt Hagan, Jeg Coughlin and Andrew Hines also were qualifying leaders in their categories at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event, the first of six championship playoff races.
Dixon, winner of nine races and the top seed in Top Fuel entering the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship, covered historic O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis with a track record run of 3.776 seconds at 324.36 mph in his Al-Anabi Racing dragster.
“It’s like Houston air got imported into Indianapolis,” said Dixon. “The weather is great, and I’m glad the car stuck. It hooked up and wasn’t moving left or right. I could see the .77 on the board, and I thought, ‘Wow. That’s nice.’ I love having two night sessions, especially since we missed it last night. Running in these conditions again was like getting a ‘get out of jail free’ card. We needed that run to get out of the middle of the field. That was a clutch run by Alan (Johnson, team manager), Jason (McCull-och, crew chief), and the team.”
Don Schumacher Racing drivers held down the second and third spots as Cory McClenathan posted a 4.784 at 323.66 in his FRAM dragster and eight-time Mac Tools U.S. Nationals winner Tony Schumacher ran 4.790 at 324.83 in his U.S. Army dragster.
Hagan powered his DieHard Dodge Charger to the top of the Funny Car order with a track record time of 4.039 at 277.89. Ron Capps moved to second in the lineup with a 4.049 at 309.77 in his NAPA Charger and Robert Hight dropped to third overall with his performance of 4.055 at 310.98 in his Auto Club Ford Mustang.
