NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Larry Dixon went for one of the wildest rides of his career during Saturday’s first session of Top Fuel qualifying at last year’s Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals.

The C&J Energy Services dragster went out of control and took the three-time Mello Yello world champion along for the ride. Dixon walked away from the crash and would have attempted to compete the next day if a spare chassis were available.

It was a similar accident to one that Dixon endured in the final round of an event in Memphis, Tenn., in 2000. He was streaking downtrack in Don Prudhomme’s dragster opposite a tire-smoking Gary Scelzi when the dragster buckled in similar fashion.

“I would wish that on no one once, let alone twice,” said Dixon. “It could have been bad in the first go-around in 2000, but obviously there were a lot of things that could stand to be improved upon. That’s what our team did at the time in 2000. It took 15 years to test-drive all the improvements that took place to see if they worked. We literally went through almost the same type of event. To be able to walk away from it this time was a credit to what we worked on.”

Despite suffering some back injuries, Dixon competed at the next event in Charlotte and reached the final round at the following event in Las Vegas. The 62-time national event winner reached six final rounds that season and finished No. 4 in the Mello Yello standings. Dixon is currently a free agent.