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NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCEApril 29, 2015Larry Dixon=SCOTT SMITH: We are joined by Larry Dixon. Dixon returns to the cockpit in 2015 for the first time full season since 2011. The three-time Top Fuel world champion raced to his first final round appearance in Las Vegas since his 2011 win in Phoenix. He also raced to a semifinal appearance at the season-opening event in Pomona. Dixon was involved in a spectacular event in Gainesville that made news headlines across the country. Larry, let's start with Las Vegas, rebounding from Gainesville, you made it to the finals, came up just a little bit short. Did you think that was your time to win or did you think you would have a win by this point in the season? LARRY DIXON: Gosh, looking back on it, I think after the weekend was over, how I feel about this team, the investment that Bob Vandergriff has made in the equipment and people for this season, I felt okay. You're never thrilled to get to a final round and lose. But where we were last month with Gainesville, ruining a car in such a devastating way, I was okay with it. I think last year, had we gone to the final and not won, I'd have been more disappointed. We really didn't have the equipment and the people and budget in place last year. You'd almost be lucky to win one. This year I think we have everything in place. Okay, we didn't win Las Vegas, but I think and I hope that we'll be back in that position all season long. So you rack it up as points. That was a good race for us from the standpoint we got back into the top 10 in points, and we're looking to go to another final round hopefully real soon. SCOTT SMITH: You've been doing this since 1995. So far this season we've seen six different winners in six different events. What has been the level of competition so far in Top Fuel that you've seen? LARRY DIXON: Well, with the rule package in place, this season it seems you can win from any position. At Vegas we qualified 15th, and here we get to go to a final round. Last week we were 12th, and I think we have a racecar that can win. But so can everybody else that qualifies for the field. The rule package that's in place, there's not a lot of room for development. You have a lot of cars that run very similar times. Those early rounds at Houston this past week, everybody was running 370s. If you're going to be in the game, that's what you've got to do. With that being said, anybody can win if you are running with the pack. So I think just the rule package that's in place, it just makes for real tight racing, like you see in all the other professional categories. SCOTT SMITH: We'll open it up to questions for Larry. Q. Larry, to have sat out for the time you sat out, to really get a clear perspective of your career and everything, is this a comfortable, exciting year for you, or is this a more intense year as you try to make sure you try to stay where you've gotten back to? LARRY DIXON: Running a part-time schedule for the last three seasons, it makes me more appreciative of the opportunity to be able to race out there full-time. People that haven't tried it don't know how hard it is to come up with the budget that it takes to be able to run one of these cars full-time. As you can see by the Force Johnson team and such, trying to find that money to be able to run a car let alone two cars, just what Bob Vandergriff has done, taking last year one car full-time, one car part-time, running both cars this year full-time, it's made me very appreciative of that opportunity. That's kind of how I feel. From that standpoint, I just feel fortunate that Bob thinks enough of me to be one of his guys. Q. Given that you've shown your ability hasn't slipped one ounce, that the team is working so hard, would there be some place in the remaining schedule where it would just be so heart-filling for you if you could win? LARRY DIXON: Whatever one's next on the schedule (laughter). To be honest with you, I mean, there's a couple places on the tour I haven't won at. I've been very blessed to be with great crew chiefs, great tuners and such that have been able to win at a lot of different racetracks. But I haven't won in St. Louis. My dad has won at Epping in the past. I never even competed there. There's places. Gosh, I love racing. Wherever you get to stand on the (indiscernible), you're trying to win every week. I don't know that any of them shine any brighter than the others, except maybe Indianapolis, I guess. Q. Larry, after the spectacular crash in Gainesville, in the time afterwards, how many times have you had to explain that to other people and then get back focused on the fact that you're a three-time champion? Probably not everybody is asking you about that. Talk about overcoming that type of situation and moving on. LARRY DIXON: Well, I mean, it's definitely quite a spectacular wreck. I don't feel fortunate that I've done that twice in that same type of accident, but I feel fortunate that the injuries I sustained 15 years ago back in Memphis in the same type of wreck, that we worked really hard on specific areas of the cockpit of that car to make sure if we ever got into a situation like that again, I wouldn't have those same injuries. I can't tell you how thrilled I was. Really, General Motors, at the time Herb Fishel, he headed up the racing program. That was on a Saturday at Gainesville. Monday morning I sent off an email to him thanking him again, because we still stay in touch, for what we did to the cars to make sure I don't break my legs or suffer a concussion, split my helmet. There were so many things that happened. To be able to go through that type of wreck, gosh, the crash box said 109 Gs. I know the last one wasn't anywhere near that fast. To be able to go through that and walk away, if you look after your safety equipment, your safety equipment will look after you. I'm just thrilled from that standpoint. Never get tired of talking about it because it sure beats the alternative. Q. I talked to a fan afterwards. He took his daughter to that race. She's sitting in the stands. She witnesses you doing that crash. Her reaction, he said, was just totally way off the charts. He's trying to explain to her. What would you say to that fan that went to that race for the first time and saw that crash? LARRY DIXON: Look at how safe those cars are. You can go through something like that and be okay. I mean, there again, I've done a lot of interviews, did a lot that particular week. A lot of them are like, How can you be so insane to want to get back into a car like that? Because that car took care of me. Flying through the air, all that, that part wasn't pretty, but the fact I walked away from that, it did take care of me. It gives you, I guess, a strong sense of confidence to go through something like that. My car is going to take care of me. I don't know how else to say it other than that. I mean, you see other types of incidents and stuff. But you got to learn from it. Every incident that happens out there, whether somebody gets hurt or not, you have to learn from it and try to make the car safe. If we didn't learn anything from past incidents, we'd still be wearing leather caps and T-shirts. Things happen on the racetrack. We're completely prepared for it. Hopefully people will take that away from it. Q. Larry, you generated a very large media burst for the sport of drag racing earlier this year, clearly not the way you would want to do it. This transition that's happening with live television. As a historian of the sport, having been there with your father, all the years with the Snake, give me your thoughts and perspective on how this is going to be beneficial to growing the sport, how it helps you with your interaction with fans. As someone who is an entertainer, putting on a show for people, how do you think more live television is working and how is it going to work in the future? LARRY DIXON: That question might be better suited for NHRA's marketing department. My opinion is you hope you can get all that out. I'd rather watch it live during the day than at 3:00 in the morning. More eyes are going to see it during the day than the middle of the night. Hopefully that helps. Obviously, I didn't want to go through the accident. That got so many hits on YouTube and such. The world saw that. I got emails for interview requests from Germany and England, Asia. I mean, it literally went worldwide. People are obviously paying attention. So if you can flip on the television and actually see it during daytime hours in live time, you can use the social media how it's intended: for people to be chatting on it while it's going on, while people are doing their burnouts. You hope that is fun and would generate more fan interest and get more people to tune in. I know we've had live races off and on through the years. When I crashed in Memphis in 2000, that actually aired on live television at the time. You hope the supply and demand, you know, people will demand more live footage, live shows. That's what you hope. Q. Dave Connolly made the transition into Top Fuel this year. Talk about his season so far. Have you been able to coach him or has he leaned on you to teach him about these cars? LARRY DIXON: A little bit. A little bit. There isn't a lot you need to teach Dave Connolly. The guy's won Indianapolis a number of times. He's won in every car he's ever sat in. Just an open-wheel Top Fuel car, that type of power, the tendencies of the car. We drive back and forth to the racetrack together. We chat a little bit before and after the day and the weekend and such. I have an open book. I don't know that how I drive a car is gospel. If there's things I can offer him and that helps him, that's only going to help our team. That's where my open book is with it. I think he's doing a great job, no different than our car. We just need more runs down the racetrack to build up our data. Got a lot of new people in our pit, a lot of new equipment. The more runs we can get on both sides will help both of us get to the winner's circle sooner. He's doing a great job and he's going to make people earn their money this year. He does a fantastic job in the car. It's really exciting to see him go out there and do his thing. SCOTT SMITH: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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