NHRA Teams in Reading
Posted by Morgan Ferguson on Mon, Aug 24, 2009 @ 09:22
Larry Dixon, driving for
Alan Johnson Racing with support from
Safety-Kleen, had a near perfect weekend in Reading, PA, winning the NHRA event in the Top Fuel class. Dixon, who was the runner-up last weekend in Brainerd, ran all 3 second passes in all four rounds on Sunday. He opened with a 3.99 defeat of Chris Karamesines, then won a critical race against
Tony Schumacher, who is now second in points. Dixon earned a spot in the 89th final of his career and sixth this year when he beat rookie Shawn Langdon in the semis. The final round was decided almost immediately when
Don Prudomne's driver Massey smoked the tires, leaving him to just watch as Dixon cruised to the win with a 3.89 second pass. In Funny Car,
Bob Tasca also had a nearly perfect outing as he drove his Mustang to his second career Funny Car victory. The win moved him up to fourth in the points and locked him into the Countdown to One playoffs. Tasca went wire to wire in the all-Ford final, getting a huge jump on the
John Force/
Safety-Kleen sponsored
Mike Neff, who was "out to lunch" and had a .235-second reaction time against Tasca. Tasca just added to his lead as he traversed the 1,000-foot course, outrunning Neff, 4.23 to 4.24, to turn on the win light. In Pro Stock,
Jeg Coughlin won and was able to keep his points lead beating Johnny Gray in the finals and taking his 6th win of the year.
Safety-Kleen's Jason Line lost in the semis. The NHRA get a weekend off before traveling to Indy for the US Nationals on Labor Day weekend.
