Dixon, Beckman, Line, Hines claim top honors in Norwalk

NHRA Media Photoby Phil Burgess, NHRA.com
Larry Dixon, Jack Beckman, Jason Line, and Andrew Hines collected victories at the third annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park. The race was the 12th event of the 24-race NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

The victories by the Pro winners were crucial in many aspects. Dixon used his fourth win of the season in Top Fuel to move to second in standings, while Funny Car champ Beckman moved into fourth place. Line was able to move up a spot as well, into third in Pro Stock, while Hines also took one step forward and into second place behind his teammate and fellow finalist Eddie Krawiec.

There was a lot at stake for Dixon in the Top Fuel final as a win would propel him into second place and a loss would drop him to fourth behind opponent Brandon Bernstein. The race ended early though when Bernstein smoked the tires and watched Dixon zoom away to a 3.98, 294.05-mph victory, the 47th of his career. Dixon remains perfect on the season with four wins in four finals.

“Four win lights at the end of the day, that’s what counts,” said Dixon. “There were certain rounds that were not pretty, but at the same time, we were the quickest car every pair. I’m just real thankful to be able to get this win. The biggest thing is that [this is] a good team and they’re working on trying to find the personality of all the brand new parts they have, and for me, it’s trying to find my comfort zone within the team. Being underneath one camp for a long period of time and then you switch, it’s different. It’s taken me a little while to adapt and try to fit in and hold up my end of the bargain.

“A couple middle rounds there where it spun the tires you just try to do what you can and get a win light, and hopefully you can get up there and adjust for it and try to make a better run. From the second round on, we kept getting quicker. The track was hotter, it was the hottest all weekend. We almost got it perfect in the final. It spun a little bit down track and we put a hole out and we ran on down there. I kept waiting for that red car to go around me because it’s a strong team over there and we’re just fortunate to get the win.”

Dixon, who started race day from the No. 1 spot for the 34th time in his career, powered the Jason McCulloch-tuned, Alan Johnson-owned Al-Anabi dragster past Steve Chrisman, Clay Millican, and points leader Antron Brown to reach the 87th final round of his career and his third in the last four races.

Bernstein was seeking to break the longest win drought of his six-season-old Pro career. He had lost the last seven final rounds since his last win, in Brained in August 2007, but raced his way to the 31st Top Fuel final of his career and his second straight at this event with wins over Tom Cullinan, Troy Buff, and Chicago winner Spencer Massey.

Beckman got exactly the kind of gift he’d most like on the day of his 43rd birthday, a final-round win, the eighth of his Funny Car career, and a move into fourth place in the standings. The win came easy after Bob Tasca III smoked the tires, but Beckman took everyone’s breath away with a scary-close .001 reaction time.

“I think it’s only on your birthday that you get away with what I got away with,” said Beckman, who battled a head cold all weekend. “I made a mistake, pure and simple. We had a good car, but we were vulnerable. As I stepped on the throttle, I was looking down at the green light as I went by and it went green and I went, ‘Wow, we’re still very much in this thing.’

“We’ve been sliding down in points the last couple of weeks, so it was good to go from sixth to fourth. Our goal is to be a top-five car by Indy, and, more importantly, our goal is to be consistently quick come Indy. Once the points are reset anyone in the top five has a chance [to win the championships], and if you can hit your stride now, like we did last year heading into Denver, we’re going to be in good shape for the summer months.”

Beckman, a winner earlier this season in Atlanta, reached his third final of the year and the 15th of his Funny Car career with the Valvoline Engine Guarantee Dodge, by racing his Johnny West-wrenched machine past Bob Bode, Jim Head, and Ford patriarch John Force.

Gatornationals champ Tasca had a lot of incentive to do well as many top executives from Ford were on hand to watch Tasca and his Ford Racing compatriots, three of which made the semifinals. Tasca powered his Chris Cunningham-tuned Quick Lane/Motorcraft Mustang past Matt Hagan and fellow Ford pilots Mike Neff and Ashley Force Hood to reach the final, his second of the year. Despite her final-four loss to Tasca, Force Hood took over the points lead for the first time this season.

The Pro Stock final featured two former Sportsman winners each gunning for his 18th Pro Stock victory and 20th win overall that allowed them to close the gap on points leader Jeg Coughlin. Line, in his first event in teammate Greg Anderson’s 2008 car, won going away, 6.66, 207.30 to 6.74, 203.71.

“This was absolutely the biggest win for me, and it was a great time to do it,” said Line. “We’re tired of watching that yellow car win races, and we needed to get out there too. We just haven’t done a good job lately. But we’re starting to right the ship, and by Indy time, we’re going to be strong. It’s hopefully a sign of things to come for us, and it was a great day. I just can’t thank everybody at Summit enough. Summit Motorsports Park did a great job making the best out of the racetrack, and hats off to them for going to the extra effort.

“My truck driver, Sonny McCurdy, he told me a couple weeks ago, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.’ So we said, ‘We’ve gotta change something up here because we’ve just been terrible, and we’re a better team than that.’ It was Rob’s [Downing, crew chief] decision [to use Anderson’s old car], and it was time. There was really nothing wrong with the other car, we just couldn’t see the forest for the trees. So we made some changes, and obviously it’s paid off for us. And it’s going to get better.”

Line upheld the honor of event and track sponsor Summit Racing Equipment by racing his Pontiac to his 38th Pro Stock final and fourth of the season. Line, who began the year with two wins at the first three races and led the points through the first four events, had fallen to fourth in standings but used wins over Johnny Gray, Warren Johnson, and Ron Krisher to reach the final and move into third place.

Edwards, who last won in Bristol to start a streak of reaching fifth straight final rounds with his ART/Young Life Pontiac, advanced to the 36th final of his Pro Stock career with victories over Justin Humphreys, K&N Horsepower Challenge champ Coughlin, and Greg Stanfield with runs of 6.65, 6.66, and 6.70. The final-round loss was the fourth straight time he’s reach the money round only to be turned away.

Hines and teammate Krawiec showed that all of the hard work going on in the Vance & Hines shop to overcome the 20-pound weight increased put on their machines three races ago has paid off as the Screamin’ Eagle Harley teammates went at it in the final after qualifying 1-3. It was only their second final-round meeting, the other coming in Brainerd in 2007, where Hines scored the win. The one went the same way with Hines coupling a .005 light to a 7.02, 189.98 to best Krawiec’s 7.03, 190.78 and earn his 16th career win. It was Hines’ first win this season and first since last year’s Madison event and moved him into second place in the standings.

“It’s been 19 or 20 races [since his last win], and it feels good to do it with my teammate in the other lane; it made it that much better,” said Hines, who also won here in 2007. “Eddie’s been kicking my butt lately, so I hit the Tree hard in the semifinals when I had a bye, and in the final, I figured I had nothing to lose I hadn’t been there in a while; if I go red, I go red. I threw everything I had at it because I knew I needed something against Eddie. It’s good to finally be back on my game on the starting line.

“We’ve been able to overcome some of the weight, but it’s still going to hurt us. We were able to put the weight pretty far forward with some heavy steel brake caliper brackets, which actually helped us with our balance and our center of gravity and 60-foot times. After that, [the weight] hurts us and it’s always going to be there, but we feel like now we’re able to overcome it and win some races.”

Hines, who had scored his 26th career pole Saturday, reached his 28th final Sunday with a strong performance that just kept better. His 7.04 in round one against Mike Berry wasn’t the quickest of the frame but his subsequent 6.99 to beat rookie of the year contender Doug Horne and a 7.03 in the semifinals on a bye run after Matt Guidera couldn’t make the call after wounding his engine the round before were the quickest of the two middle frames and earned him his first final-round appearance of the season and lane choice against Krawiec.

Krawiec, the defending world champ who earned the dubious honor of becoming just the second champ to earn the season title without winning a race, has done a great job of erasing that trivia note with wins in Atlanta and Chicago earlier this year and reached his fourth final of the year and the 11th of his young career by defeating Jim Underdahl, Karen Stoffer, and Angie McBride with passes of 7.03, 7.01, and 7.06.