Larry Dixon is facing a prime opportunity.

As the fastest Top Fuel qualifier for the Virginia NHRA Nationals he gets a bye in the first round as there are only 15 dragsters in competition on Sunday.

With the bye, Dixon can throw caution to the wind and shoot for a national record.

“You know qualifying low here is a big deal with 15 cars entered,” confirmed Dixon. “You know, low qualifier gets a bye run and that's 20 points right there. We're gonna go up there and we still have an opportunity, along with a few other cars to set a record and a national record is worth a round of points.”

Dixon closed the gap between himself and Top Fuel points leader Tony Schumacher with his fourth straight No. 1 qualifier.

Larry Dixon is facing a prime opportunity.

As the fastest Top Fuel qualifier for the Virginia NHRA Nationals he gets a bye in the first round as there are only 15 dragsters in competition on Sunday.

With the bye, Dixon can throw caution to the wind and shoot for a national record.

“You know qualifying low here is a big deal with 15 cars entered,” confirmed Dixon. “You know, low qualifier gets a bye run and that's 20 points right there. We're gonna go up there and we still have an opportunity, along with a few other cars to set a record and a national record is worth a round of points.”

Dixon closed the gap between himself and Top Fuel points leader Tony Schumacher with his fourth straight No. 1 qualifier.

Dixon, who notched his eighth No. 1 qualifier of 2009 and 39th of his career in the Al-Anabi dragster, sliced his deficit behind Schumacher from 54 to 47 points with a 3.783-second pass at 311.27 mph.

“I’m obviously happy to be on the pole here,” said Dixon, who earned seven qualifying bonus points to just three for Schumacher. “You need to be low of those sessions to get those extra bonus points because that adds up. We made up almost a round last week (in Memphis). We didn’t do it this week, but we still gained ground on Tony (Schumacher). If you can do that at the next couple of races, including this one, you could make up a round of racing. From where I’m at, a round of racing would be real nice right now.”

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