Dixon raced to his first Top Fuel victory of the season and fourth at this event, posting a 3.898 at 311.05 in his Alan Johnson Al-Anabi Racing dragster to defeat Cory McClenathan, whose FRAM dragster lost traction early in the run and crossed the finish line in 4.570 at 192.60.

"We have nothing to complain about today," said McClenathan. "As a racer you see a lot of times where somebody else had the luck. Well, today, we did well against our teammate and won the round and hurt some parts. That semifinal run was pure luck. We hurt it early and Bobby Lagana had a shot of beating us. We almost beat ourselves there, but the FRAM guys reeled in, did what they could for the final round.

"We knew the right lane could only hold so much. We knew that AJ (team owner Alan Johnson) and Dixon were going to try to run another 3.88 (-second pass). They did exactly what they said they were going to do."

"It's hard to win these races, especially with a brand-new team," said Dixon, who beat Doug Kalitta, Morgan Lucas and Brandon Bernstein in earlier rounds. "They can have all the notes they want from last season but you don't have the same parts they had last season. They don't have the same blowers or the same clutch discs, and anyone who runs a fuel car will tell you that each of those parts has its own personality and you have to learn that personality and understand it, and they've been able to do that."

It is Dixon's first win for new team owner Alan Johnson. Dixon's first 43 wins came as driver for Don "The Snake" Prudhomme from 1995-'07. "I know how hard it is to make these cars go down the track, but they make it look easy," Dixon said. "It's an a amazing group. Alan Johnson is a genius and (crew chief) Jason McCulloch is working right underneath him, and I'm happy for him to get his first win. I'm also happy for the sheik [team co-owner Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani] and to be able to get his first win the third race out. I'm honored to be driving the car."

Despite a second round upset to part-time racer Bobby Lagana, Antron Brown held on to the series lead in Top Fuel.