Three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon confirmed today what many had long suspected following Leah Pritchett’s move to Bob Vandergriff Racing (BVR) in early December, revealing that he’s once again on the sidelines as the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello season approaches.

The Avon, Indiana driver, a second-generation racer and California transplant, was released last week from BVR after just one season of full-time racing there following years of ups and downs while competing part-time and attempting to form his own race team. Despite a harrowing crash at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida in March that left him with a fractured T-4 and 5 vertebrae in his upper back and a contusion in his left knee, the 49-year old didn’t miss a single race and went on to finish fourth in the Top Fuel standings — his highest finish since 2010, when he won his most recent championship driving for Al-Anabi Racing.

Photos courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

“I was able to walk away from the crash at Gainesville but, to be honest, I was banged up pretty good,” said Dixon, who became a guest on television shows such as Good Morning America, The Today Show, Fox & Friends and CNN Morning News after the crash. “I would have gotten back in the car the next day if we had a backup chassis. But, despite the injuries, I was able to not miss a race. That’s how I was raised.”

“I’m finally 100 percent healed now and was excited about a championship run in 2016,” Dixon said. “I felt pretty good by October and Dr. (Terry) Trammell at Ortho Indy gave me the green light for a more aggressive workout program this off season.”

Now unemployed once again and with mere weeks before the season-opening Winterntationals in Pomona, Dixon finds himself considering any and all options to remain a part of the sport that’s been his livelihood since the 1980s, when he worked for longtime team owner Larry Minor. That includes not only a return to a Top Fuel cockpit, but potentially team management or media roles.

“I am anxious to get back out on the NHRA Mello Yello drag racing tour,” explained Dixon. “I want to thank Bob for the opportunity to get back to full-time racing and we had a good season with fourth in the points. It felt good to show I can still be relevant behind the wheel. I wish Mike (Guger, crew chief) and the whole crew good luck in 2016. Now, I know the timings not the best this late into the off season, but I would like to do whatever it takes to get back on the circuit, whether it’s driving, consulting or being a member of the media again.”

After the loss of her primary sponsor at the close of the 2015 season and subsequent shuttering of the Dote Racing operation, BVR announced in December that Pritchett would drive for the team in 2016, with Quaker State onboard as the teams’ backer for a full-time championship run. With Dave Connolly already in the seat vacated by Vandergriff, that left Dixon as the odd man out in the brutal game of drag racing musical chairs.