1987 Southern Nationals
The 2001 battle for the NHRA Top Fuel crown will long be remembered as a battle to the wire between Kenny Bernstein and Larry Dixon, Budweiser versus Miller Lite. It was the beer war to end all beer wars, but few will recall that the stage for that drama was not set until well past the season's midpoint. In fact, in the season's first 17 events, the two faced off only four times.

Bernstein's final-round victory, his third in the previous six events, was made even sweeter when the Bud King crowned Miller Lite rival Larry Dixon for the title.

It could well be argued that Bernstein's final-round victory over Dixon in Topeka really got the juices flowing, even if they didn't hit flash-flood fervor until later in the season.

Bernstein began the 2001 season in a serious funk, losing in the first, third, and second rounds of the season's first three races and never qualifying better than seventh. That all changed when Bernstein hired Tim Richards as his crew chief, leading to a string of wins that brought him into points contention with runaway leader Mike Dunn, winner of the O'Reilly Nationals and Southern Nationals, and second-place Dixon, winner of the Checker Schuck's Kragen Nationals. After winning in Las Vegas, Bernstein — five years removed from his breakthrough Top Fuel championship in 1996 and having not held the points lead since — notched a win at the Matco Tools NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, then headed straight for Topeka.

Dunn led qualifying with a sterling 4.49. Bernstein was four pegs lower with a 4.58; and Dixon was seventh at 4.63. Dunn, however, stumbled in eliminations, his efforts of 5.38, 4.65, and 4.74 resembling a punch-drunk fighter as his team sought to cope with the hot conditions. By comparison, Bernstein was steady through the first three rounds with clockings of 4.61, 4.62, and 4.68, the latter of which trailered Dunn's .74. Dixon, meanwhile, ran a pair of 4.64s to bookend an off-kilter second-round 4.89 against No. 2 qualifier Doug Kalitta's cylinder-head-lifting 5.07.

Bernstein reflects "It really started [in Topeka] and just escalated. We were on a hot streak with three wins in four races there, and Dixon wasn't quite the driver, and [his dragster] wasn't quite the car it became. "We were looking at Dunn and Dixon, but we had no idea what that team was capable of. I don't think it really hit us until the Western swing. Things got worse in Brainerd when we lost in the first round and [Dixon] won the race to pick up 80 points on us going into Indy. We had to pick at their points lead over several races, which is the same boat we're in right now."

Dixon's semifinal 4.64 against tire-spinning Gary Scelzi earned the Miller Lite team lane choice against Bernstein in the final, a climactic pairing that would foretell what lay ahead.

Bernstein cut his best light of eliminations, a .485 against Dixon's deeper-staged .496, and stretched that lead in two-hundredths increments at every point down the track before tripping the win light .034-second ahead of Dixon, 4.625 at 317.94 mph to 4.648 at 313.73 mph.

"Beating the Miller Lite car is major with us and with Budweiser in St. Louis," Bernstein said. "Those two beer companies don't like each other; they never have and probably never will. Unique about our sport is that you have two cars sitting on the starting line side by side, and one is going to be a winner and one is going to be a loser. It's not the end of the world if we lose sometimes to them because they are a great team, but I know St. Louis is happy now, and they will be happy tomorrow."

The victory — Bernstein's 26th in Top Fuel and 56th overall — gave Bernstein a slim 19-point lead over Dixon, both of whom leapfrogged over Dunn, who fell to third, 12 points behind Dixon.