An uncertain weather forecast for Saturday qualifying at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Joliet, Ill., made for a clear objective as far as Larry Dixon was concerned.

“We knew we needed to get into the top sixteen,” said Dixon, who has qualified third or better in every race this season except one.

Securing a spot in the field on Friday in the event of a Saturday postponement of qualifying is one thing, doing it with a 3.814 elapsed time at 317.41 was another.

An uncertain weather forecast for Saturday qualifying at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Joliet, Ill., made for a clear objective as far as Larry Dixon was concerned.

“We knew we needed to get into the top sixteen,” said Dixon, who has qualified third or better in every race this season except one.

Securing a spot in the field on Friday in the event of a Saturday postponement of qualifying is one thing, doing it with a 3.814 elapsed time at 317.41 was another.

“As the session went on and the cars started running quicker, following Cory and Tony’s runs, Alan [Johnson] and Jason [McCulloch] started making adjustments,” Dixon explained. “They obviously felt the track could handle it and if it didn’t, it would have been up to me to do whatever needed to be done. As it turned out, I didn’t need to. It went down the track smoothly. “

If the run hadn’t gone as planned, Dixon had a standing order from his tuners to do what it took, driving-wise, to get into the show.

“I think you saw quite a few guys doing that out there,” Dixon said. “There were other Top Fuel and Funny Car teams doing that to make sure they got in there. It wasn’t pretty.”

But for Dixon, the prettiest sight was in seeing his numbers illuminated on the Route 66 Raceway scoreboard.

“I got to see the scoreboards because of the way they are positioned here – I saw the 3.81 come up on the board and I said, ‘nice’ – we’re qualified.”

Dixon’s familiarity with the facility located outside of Chicago was enough for the two-time Top Fuel champion to know the potential was there.

“If the sun isn’t on this track it tightens up and gets fast,” Dixon said. “All through the years, it’s always been very fast. I think the NHRA does a great job prepping the tracks and after that, it’s up to the teams. The Funny Cars as they got to the end of the session were firing off some great numbers. The same thing happened with the dragsters.”

Dixon has won twice at Route 66 Raceway, once in 2002 and most recently in 2007. This season, Dixon’s has reached the semi-finals in seven of the first nine events.