ENNIS, Texas. – It would be easy for Morgan Lucas to hang his head about missing the Countdown to 1, NHRA’s championship playoff system, but this Brownsburg, Ind., resident is all about winning and he hasn’t thought about anything else but improving his Lucas Oil Stabilizer Top Fuel dragster team for this weekend’s O’Reilly Super Start Batteries Fall Nationals.
“We’re taking the higher road and working on constantly improving,” said Lucas, Top Fuel’s youngest driver. “We missed the Countdown, but we’re not going to let it get us down. We have a strong team and with now Jimmy Walsh on board, I look forward to seeing things improving.”
In Lucas’ fifth attempt at the Texas Motorplex, his best run was in 2004 when he reached the semi-finals; however, the 24-year old driver knows that now is the time to start preparing for the 2009 season. When he gets to the track, then he can relay the set up to his crew chief, Walsh and then start mounting a charge.
“Anytime you can find the consistency in the car, that’s the first step in building a program,” said Lucas. “Just give us some time to figure out what the car wants and then we’ll have something to build on. It’s that consistency that has evaded us. We are strong and can easily make great runs…just need to be more aggressive at the starting line.”
LUCAS OIL RACING DRIVER NOTES:
Morgan Lucas has five runner-up finishes, which the Brownsburg, Ind. driver reached in only his seventh (04 Las Vegas2), eighth (04 Pomona2), 10th (05 Phoenix), 20th (05 St. Louis) and 21st (05 Denver) starts. He finished fifth in the 2005 NHRA Top Fuel Point standings with 1,357 points after completing his first full season on the competitive 23-race NHRA circuit. He finished 11th in 2006 and 15th in 2007.
Lucas’ quickest elapsed time is 4.474 seconds, set on Feb. 12, 2005 at Pomona Raceway. He sped to his fastest top speed of 333.33 mph on Feb. 9, in the final round of qualifying at the 2008 CarQuest Auto Parts Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. He has won two low qualifier awards—His first on May 14, 2005 at the Atlanta Dragway recording a time 4.541 seconds and Oct. 22 on The Strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway setting the pace with his run of 4.508 seconds. Morgan Lucas first Top Fuel event came behind the wheel of the Joe Amato-owned dragster at the 2004 Lucas Oil Nationals at the Brainerd (MN. ) International Raceway on August 15, 2004. DOB: November 27, 1983
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