No one has to tell Morgan Lucas that he is only a mere 9 points away from a berth into the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel championship Countdown as he heads into this weekend’s family-sponsored 28th annual Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway. For just 24 years of age, he feels he has run the gamut of emotions with him getting this close to a title contending position after 15 drag racing events of the 18 that makes up the regular season.
In addition, Lucas will be celebrating the start of his fifth anniversary as a professional NHRA driver going back to his humble beginnings the first time behind the wheel of Joe Amato’s dragster in 2004, which resulted in only a first round finish
The man on the Top Fuel bubble is going to have an active week going into the Lucas Oil Nationals. First he will in attendance and signing autographs at the Lucas Oil FanFest featuring all the professional Lucas Oil Racing teams consisting of Top Fuel teammate and five-time winner, J.R. Todd, 9-time Pro-Stock champ, Larry Morgan, Norwalk winning Pro-Stock motorcyclist, Hector Arana, along with the Lucas Oil Sportsman drivers, Brad Plourd, and Gary Fortner as they take over downtown Minneapolis in the Nicollet Mall area on Wednesday, Aug. 6 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to kick-off the very busy race week
“This race is going to be extremely crucial to our cause,” said the five-time final round runner-up, Lucas. “We only have two more races after Brainerd to make the big show and we need those valuable round wins to make our move. To be honest, our main goal and focus right now is just getting one if not both cars in the top 10. I know J.R. (Todd)‘s car at this point looks almost impossible to make it in. But we’re going to work our butt off to make sure it happens.
“We hired Jimmy Walsh to come over. He’s going to start running my car and that might add a pretty cool mix to things. Hopefully he can bring a performance advantage over here and maybe even get us further than just 10th, maybe get us around that 9th place spot so we have a little cushion.”
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