CarQuest Auto Parts
NHRA Nationals
Seattle
(July 25-27)
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16th Annual |
| Sunday |
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Anderson also remains hot with win |
John Force, one of only three drivers to ever sweep the three-race Western Swing, nailed down his second straight win and made up ground on the two drivers ahead of him in the points race, including Whit Bazemore, whom he defeated in the final, 5.03 to 5.21, at the 16th annual CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Pacific Raceways outside of Seattle.
Larry Dixon also moved to within one race of a sweep, winning his second straight in Top Fuel and turning back prime challenge Doug Kalitta, 4.67 to 4.73, in the final. In Pro Stock, Greg Anderson helped his championship cause with yet another victory, defeating upstart finalist Larry Morgan for the title, 6.85 to 6.91.
Proving he has one of the best crew chiefs in the business, Dixon shrugged off the daylong demons of the left-hand lane and screamed away from Kalitta for his seventh victory of the 2003 campaign. Riding Dick LaHaie's powerful tune-up, Dixon threw a 4.672-second pass at 316.82 mph up against Kalitta's trailing 4.739 at 306.95 mph. The win improved Dixon's first-place margin over second-place points earner Kalitta to 251 points.
 Larry Dixon
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Dixon stays fourth on the all-time Top Fuel wins list but draws to within three victories of Kenny Bernstein and Don Garlits, who each have 35 career Top Fuel wins. His 32 career wins places him all alone in 10th place on the overall national event wins list.
"It's a good thing I have a chin strap because otherwise my jaw would've hit the ground when that win light came on," said Dixon, who won here for the first time. "The last four years in a row we've been put in that lane and we've lost. But not this time. I finally broke my Seattle jinx. Now I'll get to work on my Sonoma jinx.
"I'm still in shock. I messed up my TV interview because I was so wound up about getting down that lane that I forgot what I was saying. What a deal. When we rolled out for the final I asked Dick what it would run and he said a .467 or a 4.68. He said he needed me to get a light and I told him I'd give him everything I got."
Miller Lite pilot Dixon was impressive all weekend. After qualifying No. 1 by a comfortable margin, he roared into race day and easily outpaced Mike Strasburg, Darrell Russell, and Tony Schumacher to reach his 10th final of the year and 57th of his career.
In reaching his third consecutive final and seventh money round of the season, Mac Tools racer Kalitta beat Don Sosenka, David Baca, and Kenny Bernstein. The win over Bernstein required a huge come-from-behind effort as Bernstein pasted Kalitta at the Christmas Tree by a .072- to .116-second margin. Top Fuel results
Always a team player, Force kept some of the heat off teammate Tony Pedregon when he stopped Whit Bazemore in the Funny Car final, but Bazemore still closed the gap between second and first place to 63 points Sunday just by reaching the final.
 John Force
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At the same time, Force's 5.036 to 5.215-second victory over a tire-hazing Bazemore moved him up to third place, just 241 points out of the lead. With nine races left, 241 points is a large deficit but not one that is insurmountable, especially with Force making up 162 points in the last two events alone.
This was Force's sixth victory at this track, making him the all-time Seattle leader. He now has 108 career wins, another category he leads.
"I'm not thinking championship," Force said. "I'm going after Bazemore first because we're way behind Tony. I can still win the championship but I still feel that my job is to take out the other contenders for Tony. I got so far behind early on in this season that I'm still in that mode of a helper.
"Tony won't be down for long, trust me. The lead car gets the favors on this team. That's how we do it. The lead guy gets the new parts and the new bodies first. For me and [Gary] Densham, it's just tough luck. If I can get up there that might change but I don't think it will happen.
"We had a situation early on this year where the combination of car and driver weren't getting the job done. We had a bunch of first-round losses. The car was dropping cylinders, which was partially my fault for doing long burnouts. Then I needed time getting used to the new lights on the Tree. Now, I think those problems are behind us."
Force powered his Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang to his second win in a row and fourth successive final-round showing by posting the quickest pass of every session. He carded a pair of 5-flats against Scotty Cannon and Tommy Johnson Jr., before flashing by semifinal foe Cruz Pedregon with a 5.04-second blast.
This was the 34th final-round appearance of Bazemore's career and his 20th runner-up finish. The Matco Tools driver upset Dean Skuza, Schumacher Racing teammate and No. 1 qualifier Gary Scelzi, and Johnny Gray on the day. His win over Scelzi raised plenty of eyebrows when swapped over to the less-than-desirable left-hand lane just before the race, virtually handing the win to Bazemore. Obviously distracted by the media attention that move caused, Bazemore had to overcome a horrendous .045- to .115-second starting line headstart he gave up to Gray to win by eight-hundredths of a second. Funny Car results
The Anderson juggernaut rolled on in Seattle as the frontrunner for the 2003 POWERade Pro Stock title picked up win No. 6 on the season. This victory over Larry Morgan pushed his lead in the standings into triple digits - 112 points - over Kurt Johnson and extended his number of consecutive races atop the charts to four. Overall, Anderson has led the points after nine of 14 events this year.
 Greg Anderson
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Anderson had to work a little bit to get this win after Morgan streaked out to a .024- to .061-second starting line advantage, but his superior 6.858 at 202.09 mph was just enough to beat Morgan's game 6.910 at 200.14 mph.
This was a nice rebound of sorts for Anderson's Vegas General Construction Pontiac Grand Am team. After a pair of unlikely quarterfinal losses at the last two events, the POWERade points leader raced to his 19th career final and seventh of the season with impressive wins over V. Gaines, Mark "Cowboy" Pawuk, and former boss Warren Johnson.
"I was starting a nasty second-round slump," Anderson said of his last two finishes. "I got spanked by Warren Johnson last week and it ruined my chances for sweeping the western Swing, which was something I thought we had a chance of doing. It was really crushing. He absolutely taught me a lesson.
"We come up here and run into him again. If I had lost that one it would've been so demoralizing. If we had lost that one he would've puffed out his chest even more and told everyone he taught me another lesson. Now he can think about it for a week.
"If we can win two of the three races on the swing, it'll make for a good streak. I know I love getting those trophies no matter where you get them. There's absolutely no feeling like it because anyone can win at any time. Look at Larry Morgan. I wouldn't have bet a plugged nickel that he would beat Kurt Johnson in the semis but he did, and he damn near beat us. I saw him all the way down the track. He's qualified one time this year and this race he almost wins. What does that tell you?"
A surprise just to make the field after a season where he's qualified just one time previous to this event, Mopar Parts Pro Morgan came to life Sunday in his Dodge Stratus R/T. Starting from the 14th position, Morgan beat a red-lighting Barry Grant with a 6.87, used a near-perfect .005 reaction time to tattoo Mopar teammate Allen Johnson, and dismissed Kurt Johnson by coming from behind.
Showing tremendous sportsmanship, Anderson's crew helped Kurt Johnson's team re-pack their parachutes after they accidentally deployed in the staging lanes just before the semifinals. Anderson and Johnson once worked together but are now the two main combatants in the points chase. Pro Stock results
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