Larry Dixon Quotations

We're going to test with the same car, but we have a new car ready.

But since we've been fighting for first or second place, it's grabbed the media's attention. I enjoy racing them. They are a good team and when you beat them it's something to be proud of.

I don't think there is anything owed to us. You've got to go out and work hard for every round win.

Winning teams have the least amount of distractions. They have a really tight group of people working towards the same common goal.

Being happy is very important. We won our second championship last season and we have our entire team coming back to try and defend our title again. I'm very proud of that.

I think it's an extremely important factor to have your team together. It goes back to having distractions. When you all stay together for a period of time you're not training people or feeling out different personalities.

Snake has been everything to me. Look at where I was when I started with the company in 1988 and where I'm at now. I mean, he's shown me just about everything on and off the race track.

If two people were exactly alike, one of them would be unnecessary.

When you've been driving in the top category for 10 years, you're obviously not a kid any more. You know, I'm married now and I've got two kids. That let's you know you're getting older.

Time will tell how you rate against the rest of the competition. I'll let everyone else worry about championships. I'm going to worry about qualifying at Pomona.

You don't have to find out what someone's mechanical abilities are. All those factors are already a known commodity. I've seen teams win championships and have their entire team quit the next day because they weren't happy.

I never thought I'd live this long. It sounds funny because I still think of myself as a kid.

Because we're sponsored by competing breweries there is always competition. When we were both fighting for ninth or 10th place, nobody really cared except the two companies.

The championship always goes to the team that wins the most rounds and is the most prepared. I think everybody on our team works hard towards keeping that goal. Time will tell if we're prepared or not.

You just try to absorb as much as you can from someone who has won as many races and championships as he has. Career wise, he's been the greatest thing that's happened to me.

I don't think I ever set my goals that high. As a kid growing up I just wanted an opportunity to race and to be able to make a living doing it. It just came together.

The advantage is I have my family with me all the time. When your daughter takes her first steps or says her first words and your son is going through potty training, I'm not missing any of those things.

The same things we've done the past couple of seasons. We've worked on the engine and clutch. We'll try and pick up the performance and consistency of the car and go back out there.

We're basically 80 points out of first place and after these next three races, if we're to have a shot at the title, we need to cut that number in half,

We made another good run, but we didn't get the win light that round. I'm not the guy to paint a happy picture at this point. We've got a great team and a great car, now we just have to get it done.

So I got what I wanted. With six races left, if we've got a capable car, we've got plenty of time to catch up. If we don't have the car, there isn't much point talking about it.

I was saying that in April, 'Don't lose sight of them,' ... The cars that are in front of us are great cars. For them to stumble, they're not going to do it to many times. If we don't make moves on our merits ... we can't really wait on them to stumble because those are cars that don't stumble,

I feel good about going into the next race this weekend at Phoenix. I think Donnie (Bender), being a new crew chief, has learned some things to do and not to do. We hope to improve upon what we did at Pomona (Calif.) two weeks ago.

From where we were 15 or 20 years ago, our sport has progressed tremendously and it's definitely going forward in a positive direction.

I don't think I've ever raced in Top Fuel when it hasn't been competitive. There are quite a few teams capable of winning the championship.

I think it's a little different when you're in the middle of the points deal for the championship going into Pomona with everything going on,

I think that '01 was different because we led and then were behind, and in 2002 and '03, I don't think we didn't lead. This year, the highest we've been (in the standings) is third. From my standpoint, you're hoping that you haven't peaked and that you'll peak towards the end of the season, and we'll have to if we're going to have any chance to move up further in the standings.

I'm so glad he was able to see me win this.

When you're the first pair, you know you're running a car that can run just as good or better than you, so you don't know what to expect. We came out and made a nice solid run and took the win light.

We're less than 100 points out of first place going into Indy and that's where we're at right now. If we're a car that's capable of winning the championship, than we're in pretty good shape.

When (Schumacher) had his hiccup, I thought that would be their only bad round of the weekend. Our car picked up (speed) every round.

Everything went very smoothly today, ... On the first run, the car smoked the tires instantly. We made an adjustment, went back up and I drove it to 1,000-feet and it ran 4.64. We were trying some different equipment and on the last run they said to take it to the first light at the finish line and we ran 4.55. Tomorrow I think that we'll try some different things with the engine and clutch to make our car better for Indy next weekend.

The Shootout trophies sit right next to my championship trophies, ... My rookie year, I think the only thing we didn't do was win the championship. We won all the big races that year, Gainesville, Englishtown and Indy, and then to close out the year with a win in the Shootout made for a storybook season.

Sometimes it's been good, sometimes it's not been so good. I can't really say (why we've done so well in Memphis), I don't have a lot to justify why, kind of like our run on Father's Day (five consecutive wins on Father's Day). It's one of those things that, for whatever reason, we have a setup that seems to work when we're there.

It's especially good to win against the Schumacher team that has dominated here this decade. Any time you can beat him it's great. I even tried to beat him to the turnoff. I told him the other day I was going to get behind him and draft just to get a better qualifying time.

It's one of those racetracks that if the weather is cool, you will absolutely see the quickest runs in the history of the sport. If it's not cool, the crew chiefs have their work cut out for them.

That race pays more than Indianapolis, so you'd have to say it's the biggest race of the year and the eight best cars in the class are the only ones to run in it, ... So yeah, it's a very prestigious race.

I'm proud and ecstatic and everything. This race is everything to anybody who drag races.

I'm not sure what Donnie (Bender) was trying to run on that pass, but it spun the tires early; I know he wasn't happy about that. He knew that he had to make some adjustments, but we got the win light.

I really believe keeping the distractions to a minimum is key. I look at other forms of sports and that always seems to be a key factor.

He's only seen me win live one other time. This is his win.

How important has Phil Jackson been to the success of the Lakers? He's very important.