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Interview with the Pros: Larry Dixon & Ashley Force Hood
MICHAEL PADIAN: Two‑time-NHRA champion Larry Dixon who drives the
Al‑Anabi dragster. It's been a crapshoot all year with yourself, Antron
Brown and Tony Schumacher winning five races each.
What do you expect over these final two races and what do you think will be the difference?
LARRY DIXON: Well, it has been kind of open, open season, as far as
being able to get wins. Last week just saw Brandon (Bernstein) get his
first win in almost two years, so that was ‑‑ it's just kind of how the
season has been going. If one car kind of falls off, the other one
steps up to the plate and gets it done.
You know, legitimately, there's two or three, probably four cars that
can still win the championship, and it's going to come down to, you
know, you're still in charge of your own destiny. If you out there and
you win out those two races, you've done as much as you can do and hope
it's enough and try and get the Full Throttle Championship and
obviously bring it home to the Al‑Anabi team is what we are looking for.
MICHAEL PADIAN: Larry trails Tony Schumacher by 47 points, Cory
McClenathan is in third place 68 points back, and Antron Brown is in
fourth place, 81 points back, effectively, that's four rounds with
eight rounds of racing left for the two race, 20 points per round.
Ashley Force Hood is the third‑year driver of the Castrol GTX Ford
Mustang. Ashley has won twice this season, been to seven final rounds
and currently trails teammate Robert Hight by 13 points as she seeks to
become the first female driver in NHRA history to win a championship in
the Funny Car class.
Can you share with us the mood of the team entering these final two championship‑deciding races in Vegas and Pomona?
ASHLEY FORCE HOOD: We are really pumped. We have had a really great
season. We are right where we want to be up there in the top couple of
spots, but a lot can change in these final two races and obviously we
are aware of that. We know that we are second, Robert is first and we
are only a few points behind him, yet there are a handful of guys that
are right behind us.
So we are just going to try to do the best we can and enjoy this. And
it can get easy to get caught up in the stress of it all and getting
nervous about it and anxious, but we are really trying to look at it
from another point of view and say, our third year in, we are battling
for the NHRA Championship. That's a pretty neat spot to be in,
especially as a relatively newer team compared to a lot of the teams we
compete with.
So we are trying to enjoy this and not let the stress and nervousness
of it take over the fun of it, which is getting to be in this
competition and having the car that has the capability of winning a
championship.
Q. Larry, how satisfying is it for you being the first year with this
team doing as well as you have done, because a lot of people thought,
okay, new team, you have to have break‑in time, learning time,
seasoning among all members of the team. How are you feeling about your
great performance so far this year?
LARRY DIXON: I'm feeling great about it. You know, winning five races
so far, you know, I mean, that's ‑‑ I had not won five races in three
years.
So to be able to do that in one season is good. But you know, the rest
of the guys on the team, Alan and Jason and the rest of the Al‑Anabi
team, this is an off‑year for them. Last year they won 15 races. So
they are sorting things out and getting things going and just, you
know, probably since maybe Brainard (ph) just before Indy, the cars
really stepped up their performance. We have been ‑‑ if we have not
been on pole, we have been close to pole just about every event. And I
really think that, you know, we have contended for wins at every event
we have gone to.
So it's good. You know, I know some of the guys ‑‑ this season is not
over with, but a lot of the guys on the team are looking forward to
this winter. It's going to be a lot calmer. Last year they didn't even
have a shop to work in at this point in the season. Everybody was still
on their old jobs.
So to be able to still have the opportunity to win a championship, you
know, in the fashion that Alan and the guys have done in the past where
they are not leading the points, and there's two races to go and we are
certainly in the mix of it. You know, we are certainly going to do our
best to try and bring it home to the Al‑Anabi team.
Q. Of course this is a top season for you, you seem to adapt to the
Funny Car which is a very difficult car to drive as we all know; how
have you accommodated adapting to the Funny Car so quickly and so well?
ASHLEY FORCE HOOD: When I started in '07, I think I had five years of
racing some type of a car or another under my belt. So I had the basics
of the burnout and the staging and all those kind of things. And I also
tested for about a year and a half before I jumped into the Funny Car,
which I don't know if a lot of people realize that.
We would stay, because I was racing my A/Fuel Dragster and other teams
were racing the Funny Car and we would stay on Mondays and I would jump
into dad's car or Robert's or Eric's and test. It wasn't that I was
getting ten runs a day or anything, but a couple here or there every
week after the national event, I think really helped me to kind of get
a good baseline for once our 2007 season started and we went to testing
and went all‑out with that.
But it's really a big advantage that I've had that when I look at a lot
of other teams and a lot of other drivers, you know, people moving in
the ranks and teams that have struggled, a big advantage that I have is
that we have the financial backing; that they give me a really good new
car, good new parts, and we have all of the great pieces together and
it makes my learning curve… I think it lessens it a lot because I can
really focus on my driving and learning those mistakes and you're not
trying to learn how to drive a car while it's having motor problems and
parts failure and that side sort of a thing.
I think it's unfortunate for the teams that do have lower budgets that
I think they get maybe picked on a little more because their car isn't
performing, a lot of people want to look at the driver, but a lot of
times it is just if you just don't have the right pieces together, your
car is not going to be able to go down the track and make good runs.
The car, the seat that I was able to move into in '07, and the same
seat that I'm in now, they have always given me a really great ‑‑ all
of the tools that I need. It really lessens I think the mistakes that I
was making.
As usual, I still made plenty of mistakes. That's not to say anything
about that. But I think it would have been a lot harder if I didn't
have the tools and just the right parts and pieces in this Funny Car.
It made my learning curve easier.
MICHAEL PADIAN: Footnote in the Funny Car race. Of the Top‑10 drivers
in Funny Car competing for the championship, only two have previously
won championships, that's John Force and Tony Pedregon. And of course
those names I mentioned, only Tony Pedregon is among the top six
drivers. So five of the top six drivers who are within 86 points of the
championship have not previously won a championship. So very good
chance that we'll have a first‑time champion in Funny Car.
A note to follow up on Larry's reference to five wins this season, that
gives him 48 wins in his career, that ties him with Jeg Coughlin for
ninth place on the all‑time NHRA wins list, and those two drivers are
one victory behind Don "the Snake" Prudhomme, who is eighth on the
all‑time list.
In the other classes in Pro Stock, Mike Edwards has not yet clinched
the title but he was 128‑point lead over Greg Anderson. If he leaves
Las Vegas with 151‑point lead or greater, he will have clinched in Las
Vegas. Otherwise Pro Stock will come down to Pomona; and in Pro Stock
Motorcycle, Hector Arana leads Eddie Krawiec by 28 points, and the next
closest rider is Michael Phillips with 165 points.
Q. How about you racing your teammate for a possible title here in Funny Car?
ASHLEY FORCE HOOD: It's the best spot that we could be in. At the
beginning of the year when we have our big team meetings and we get
ready to head off to the (50th annual Kragen O'Reilly NHRA)
Winternationals, that's always our goal if we can at the end of the
year when we are back on Pomona for the world finals, if we can have
our own teammates battling for the championship, there's no better
scenario because we are going to win no matter how the day ends up.
Obviously Robert and I are not the only ones, but we are the ones ‑‑ we
are one and two. So they are going to have to catch up and go around
us. So if we can just keep doing what we have been doing and not have
anything go wrong, no mistakes, no mess‑ups, just the tuners can get
Vegas and Pomona figured out as far as the tuneup and how they want to
set up the car, we just better our chances of getting the championship.
It's fun and it's exciting for both Robert and I. He's been close so
many years. This is my first time really being right in the mix of it
being down to the last two races, so it's exciting for both of us and
for our team. For my team, being a newer team to be in this; and for
his team from the other angle of being out here a lot of years, and yet
having such a tough season that they were able to kind of come around
and do what they can do.
All of the guys are pumped up and we are ready to head off to Vegas. We still have to wait another week but we are excited.
Q. What kind of relationship, if any, do you have with Tony Schumacher?
Is he a guy you enjoy racing against, or is he a guy that is just tired
of being at the top of the game for so long?
LARRY DIXON: I get along great with Tony. You know, we will trade texts
during the week and the like and he definitely ‑‑ at the end of the day
for the last five years, he's had the No. 1 on the car, everybody has
been trying to take him out.
So for me, it's the same thing. I mean, you can be buddies in the
staging lanes but as soon as you throw the helmet on, light the car up,
it's game on. We are going to go out there and do everything we can to
bring the Al‑Anabi team home a win.
But he's got the same thing on me. I've read and heard him say, you
know, he gets pumped up when he races us and a lot of the guys on that
team is his old team. But for me, when I look over it's still the Army
car and he's still got No. 1 on it. So I'm trying to do everything I
can to help change that.
Q. For both of our guests, this break between ‑‑ well, the three‑week
break before Las Vegas, would you prefer to have moved this up a little
bit, or is this break coming at just the right time to kind of regroup
and get things together for the final two races?
ASHLEY FORCE HOOD: All of the team, especially the crew members, they
really needed a break, just to go home, get their mail, see their wives
and their kids and just to have a little time to kind of relax and get
ready so that we are all ready to go and pumped up and ready to focus
for the final two races.
So it is kind of the perfect timing. It is a little strange when we get
back to Vegas; that first day is odd when you have not been to the
track for a couple of weeks to get yourself organized and get back into
your routine of a race day and qualifying and everything like that.
But I think it was well needed and I think it really adds to the
excitement that the fans have had to race a couple of weeks and now
you'll get to see the final two big championship races. It was perfect
‑‑ I think it was right what everybody needed.
And a funny thing I was actually thinking a couple of minutes ago
during one of my answers that was rambling on, I thought, you know, I
haven't done an interview in about a week and it really shows.
That's probably the one thing about the drivers, it seems when you jump
right back in your race car, it comes right back to you, because it's
not something you're thinking about, it's more your body is reacting in
a race car.
But the talking side of things I'll definitely need to be warming up
and finding my words in the next week to be ready for Vegas, because I
feel like I'm mumbling a lot today.
MICHAEL PADIAN: Larry, what about you, the break after the four straight races to The Countdown?
LARRY DIXON: You know, it is what it is. I think if you ask most
racers, they would like to race every weekend because they love racing.
But it certainly affords a team, you know, after four in a row, I mean,
that's ‑‑ you'd have to go back to the few years to go into even rain
outs where we have had ‑‑ where we have run four in a row. It's been a
while.
So you know, it let's the teams go over the cars and go over all of the
engines and just have everything restocked up, let them catch their
breath, check in with their families, pay their bills and get ready to
head out west and go to Vegas and Pomona, because that's ‑‑ and it's
nice to have everything restocked and have all of your batteries
recharged and get back out there for those last two events because
that's, everything is on the line for those two.
MICHAEL PADIAN: And one of the things on the line is the chance for
Ashley to become the first female to win a championship in the Funny
Car division. Of course females have won championships before in NHRA,
Shirley Muldowney won three championships in Top Fuel, and Angelle
Sampey won three championships in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Ashley, would you talk for just a second about if you've thought about
that and what historically it would mean in the sport for to you win a
championship in Funny Car?
ASHLEY FORCE HOOD: I think it's not such a big deal to me and the main
reason is, I am a female driver, I had nothing to do with that, God
makes that decision, and my parents, and I also have a team of ten men
that work on my car. If you've ever seen me trying to work on an
automobile, you know I would not be second in the points for the
championship if I was working on it. But it's them and me together as a
team. We are the ones going out for the championship, not just me as an
individual.
Now, some day, I think if we could get an all‑female team, that would
be pretty amazing to have the mechanics, the tuners and the driver.
That would be something to really ‑‑ I hope that I get to see that in
my lifetime and I think it will happen. More and more women are just
moving up in the ranks. There are so many girls in junior drag racing
and sportsmen categories and those are the ones that will move up into
the professional level. I think that will come.
And if wasn't me, I happen to be the one in Funny Car right now and
with a great team so, we have, you know, both ‑‑ all of the variables
that we need to go after a championship. But I think if it wasn't me,
there will be another girl that will come along over the years, and I
think it will happen eventually. It's just a matter of when and
hopefully it will happen for us this year.
Q. You're 47 points behind with these eight rounds of racing left; are
you of the mind‑set that you have no margin for error and that you must
really sweep points and qualifying, you have no margin for error
anymore?
LARRY DIXON: I mean, you know, the way we have been going in
qualifying, we have been able to make up over the last couple of
events, make up more than a round of races, just in those bonus points
for qualifying. Seven points back on that side of things, you know, so
if you made up four points per event, now you're less than two rounds
(40 points at 20 points/round) back, and if you went out and you're
racing (first-place) Tony (Schumacher), then you're still in charge of
your own destiny.
I know our team has very high standards, and as all the teams that are
competing out there, you know, whether it's for the championship or
not; everyone is going to go out there and try and win. But if we ‑‑ if
we do win out, then we don't need anything to happen to anybody.
There's nothing ‑‑ you know, they give us 24 events to get it done, and
the rules are the same for everybody, and so we'll do our best and hope
it's enough.
Q. You often get questions about your dad, and you were talking about
being the first female to get a Funny Car title, but what's a comment
you would have maybe about being a member of a family of racing
daughters, and what do you think about the different personalities of
your sisters (Brittany and Courtney) and what do you share with your
sisters about racing?
ASHLEY FORCE HOOD: Well, they grew up at the races just like I did.
There's photos of all of us in diapers at the track and everything. So
they have the same memories and upbringing really of drag racing as I
did, and I think that's really why there are the three of us are racing.
I know to the outside world it might seem a little strange that three
sisters race cars. But to anybody who knows anything about drag racing,
that's not such a far‑fetched idea because we grew up around it and
it's what we love to do and what we want to do on our weekends off and
our summer breaks. There's a lot of kids, whether they are boys or
girls that grew up in racing that ended up having a career in it.
So it's pretty common when you look out at even in the professional
pits, the Worshams, Morgan Lucas, Bernsteins, there's a lot of families
and a lot of drivers that grew up around the tracks and ended up in
seats or tuning on cars or somehow involved in the sport.
So it's neat to be able to share that with them, and also with our dad,
it's not like we had very much in common with him had we were in kids.
We were all at cheerleading and dance and school and everything and he
was off racing. But how it has come full circle and we are out at the
tracks a lot on weekends together and I get to see them a lot more, and
my mom comes to every one of our events. And it's fun for us and it's
really allowed us to spend a lot of time together that you wouldn't
have if your family wasn't out there on the road with you. They are
both in college right now, Brittany and Courtney both are, and so I'm
impressed that they are able to balance both.
When I moved up to A/Fuel Dragster, which is what they race now, I had
just graduated from college a month earlier and then I started the
season. So I never had to do the homework at the track and all that
with the A/Fuel car, and they somehow managed to make it happen. I saw
Brittany this morning, and she was like, "I was up till three in the
morning doing homework." And I remember those days.
But when you throw in that a lot of your weekends are spent around the
country, it does make it hard. But they are enjoying it. They seem to
like it. It is a crazy schedule that they live but they seem to enjoy
it and they like doing both, and they do really well in the dragster
and the fans are excited to see them out there racing.
So it's been fun to watch as they have moved up the ranks, they did
Super Comp and they are in A/Fuel now, and I love the A/Fuel dragster
that I raced. It's a really, really fun category and they are really
enjoying it, as well.
Q. You talked about competing against Schumacher but (Cory) McClenathan
has come up strong; how much of a spoiler might he be in these last two
races?
LARRY DIXON: Well, as tight as the fields are, we have had races ‑‑ and
I can't think of which one it was over the last three or four, where
the whole field was within a tenth of a second, which I think was
tighter than Pro Stock at that point. So anybody can win. But obviously
Cory's car, with him driving and Todd and Phil tuning, yeah, they are
in the mix every week. That car is always real close to running top
speed.
So, yeah, he's definitely another guy that you have to look out for. If
you can roll up and you can stage your car on Sunday, you've got a car
that can win the event. You just hope you're driving the right one and
you're in the right lane for it when it happens.
But certainly Cory is doing real great.
Q. Which of the Top Fuel rookies has been most impressive, John or Spencer?
LARRY DIXON: I wouldn't even ‑‑ I'm glad I'm not voting for Rookie of
the Year because I think both of them have done an unbelievable job in
the car. You know, Spencer, you'd have to give him the nod because he's
won.
But as far as driving goes, the driver doesn't have control of the
tuneup of the cars. You can't shut down Shawn because he was not won an
event. And he has not won an event because it's been his fault; he's
done a great job. I mean, both of those kids are doing great in the
car. They are going down the center of the track and you know, when the
car starts to nose over, they are clicking it off. They are it doing
everything right.
I think it's a pick 'em. As a former Rookie of the Year, I'm kind of
excited to see who gets to join the class, because I think they are
certainly deserving and very, very representative.
MICHAEL PADIAN: Thanks everyone for joining us today.
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