National Hot Rod Association

The two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion defeated Morgan Lucas and Tony Schumacher in the first two rounds on Sunday. In securing the top spot in the Countdown, Dixon earns a 30-point advantage when the six-race playoff begins Labor Day weekend at the U.S. Nationals.

Antron Brown was the event’s number one qualifier and won his first-round elimination before falling to Brandon Bernstein in round two.

It was a short afternoon for the Morgan Lucas Racing team as both Shawn Langdon, the number six qualifier, and teammate Lucas (number 12 qualifier) were eliminated in the first round. The news wasn’t all bad for the team, though, as both drivers clinched their berths into the Countdown to the Championship playoffs. Each is guaranteed a spot in the top nine.

In Funny Cars, Cruz Pedregon registered his top finish of the season after advancing to the semi-finals before eventually falling to John Force. For the sixth consecutive race, Pedregon qualified in the top half of the field with a sixth. He then defeated Jeff Arend in the opening round and won an all-Toyota Camry Solara second-round defeating number three qualifier Del Worsham to advance to the semi-finals. Despite losing to Pedregon, Worsham also punched his ticket for the playoffs as he currently holds a 164-point advantage over 10th-place Tony Pedregon.

After concluding the three-race western swing, the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series will take two weekends off before concluding its “regular season” at the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway on Aug. 13-15.

Toyota Drivers, Results – Mile-High Nationals - Qual./Finish

Top Fuel
Larry Dixon - Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster - 5/Semi-finals
Antron Brown - Matco Tools Top Fuel Dragster - 1/Second-round
Shawn Langdon - Lucas Oil/Speedco Top Fuel Dragster - 6/First-round
Morgan Lucas - GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil Top Fuel Dragster - 12/First-round

Funny Car
Cruz Pedregon - Snap-On Tools Toyota Camry Solara - 6/Semi-finals
Del Worsham - Al-Anabi Racing Toyota Camry Solara Funny Car - 3/ Second-round

NOTES:

• Larry Dixon has now made the semi-finals or finals in 12 of 16 races this season – including 10 of the last 12.


• Larry Dixon now features a series-best 42-8 record in elimination rounds this season.


• Cruz Pedregon’s semi-final appearance was his best showing of the season. Pedregon had advanced past the first round just once in the season’s first 13 races, but has now made it to the second round or further in each of the last three events.


• Antron Brown’s pole on Saturday gives him five number one qualifying positions this season, tying him with Larry Dixon for the series lead.

2010 Wins (8) - Larry Dixon, Pomona, Houston, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Chicago, Englishtown, Norwalk, Sonoma
2010 Poles (10) - Antron Brown: Gainesville, Las Vegas, Topeka, Bristol; Denver
Larry Dixon: Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, Norwalk, Sonoma

Quotes:

Larry Dixon, Al-Anabi Racing Toyota Top Fuel Dragster: “Today wasn’t our day. We had a good run going in the semifinals, and the car pulled the tires loose for whatever reason.  The consolation prize is the Al-Anabi Toyota team locked in the number one seed for the Countdown, and getting those extra 30 points over whoever ends up number two when the Countdown begins is big.  I’ve said before that we sure could have used those extra 30 points last season so I’m glad to have them this year.”

Del Worsham, Al-Anabi Racing Toyota Camry Solara: “The Al-Anabi Toyota team leaves Denver with a little more progress. We qualified number three and had a nice first-round win, but we didn’t get it done in the second round.  Everything has to work out just right to win a race, and it didn’t happen for our team today.  The good news is we clinched our spot in the Countdown and I am really proud of our Al-Anabi team for making that happen.  We have one more race left in the regular season to be ready for the Countdown.  The Al-Anabi Toyota team will be ready to go when we get to Brainerd next month.”

Shawn Langdon, Lucas Oil/Speedco Toyota Top Fuel Dragster: "Our main goal at the start of the year was to make the field for the Countdown and we clinched our spot today, so that's good. Although it's hard to be super excited after a first-round loss; it was just a good race that we lost by a few feet. I was off a hundredth of a second from my reaction time average in qualifying and the car probably could have been a hundredth or two quicker so we could have been in a position to win because the difference was just two hundredths, but all these 'could haves' don't mean much.”