Larry Dixon beat Full Throttle points leader Antron Brown to collect his fourth Top Fuel win in the past six years at the United Association NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, just a half-hour away from downtown Manhattan.
Dixon, driver of the Toyota-supported Al-Anabi/Alan Johnson Racing Top Fueler, and Brown, at the wheel of the Toyota-supported Matco Tools dragster, were both looking for their third victories of the season - Brown after splitting four previous finals and Dixon after winning his only two. In the end, Dixon kept up his 100 percent finals record following an anticlimactic match that ended immediately when Brown fouled for the first time in his Top Fuel career.
"This is such a great car and a great team, and you just don't want to be the one who makes a mistake," said Dixon, who's now won two of the past three events. "Third or fourth place isn't where we want to be in the points, but we're on the way back up. We just need everything to be going right at the end of the year, when we get to the Countdown, and I think it will be."
To get the full story and see how your favorite Toyota NHRA driver did in Englishtown, please visit Toyota Racing.
NASCAR®: Logano Logs NNS Win in Kentucky, Busch Races to Two Runner-Ups
This weekend, Toyota drivers picked up one win and four additional top-three finishes in three NASCAR® races run in two different states.
Joey Logano recorded a victory in the NASCAR® Nationwide Series™ (NNS) race at Kentucky Speedway, and Kyle Busch was the runner-up at Kentucky and the NASCAR® Camping World Truck Series™ (NCWTS) race at Michigan International Speedway. Denny Hamlin's third-place finish in the NASCAR® Sprint Cup Series™ (NSCS) race in Michigan and Brian Ickler's third-place result in the Michigan NCWTS event capped of the top-threes for Toyota drivers.
Hamlin, who started 14th, finished third in his Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry behind race-winner Mark Martin and runner-up Jeff Gordon. Hamlin was running fifth late in the 400-mile, 200-lap event when the two race leaders, Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle, ran out of fuel on the two-mile oval.
"It's tough as a driver to go out there and not run as hard as what you want to," said Hamlin, following the race. "These races seem to come down to fuel mileage a lot. We worked on it a little bit with our race team, and I think I worked on it as a driver and got better. At the end, I felt like I was running a little bit too hard. So, I let the 24 (Jeff Gordon) go and it turns out the front two (Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson) baited each other into running out of gas."
After a 38th-place finish last week at Pocono Raceway, Hamlin was pleased with his strong comeback at Michigan. "We got a new race car here and we were strong all day," added Hamlin. "We had a top-five car all day. It's good to finally finish where we belong. I'm proud of this whole FedEx Express team. We were definitely a car that could contend for a top-two or top-three spot all day."
Brian Vickers, who started from the pole, was the other Toyota Camry to register a top-10 result with a ninth-place finish. Other Camry drivers in the field included Busch (13th), Robby Gordon (17th), David Reutimann (19th), Logano (25th), Michael Waltrip (30th), Marcos Ambrose (31st), Max Papis (35th), Scott Speed (37th), Dave Blaney (40th) and Joe Nemechek (42nd).
Up Next:
NASCAR® Camping World Series™ -- The Milwaukee Mile, Friday, June 19 @ 8:30 p.m. (ET) on SPEED
NASCAR® Nationwide Series™ -- The Milwaukee Mile, Saturday, June 20 @ 7:30 p.m. (ET) on ESPN2
NASCAR® SPRINT Cup Series™ -- Infineon Raceway, Sunday, June 21 @ 4:30 p.m. (ET) on TNT
