Morgan Lucas Racing
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Mon, April 14th 2008
When is it going to stop hurting?
J.R out of play in Round 1. Morgan off the board in Round 2. This year isn’t working out the way it was supposed to.
Las Vegas is such a rowdy, over-the-top, off-the-chart kind of place. You don’t want to suck there. You want to feed off the energy that drowns that town and spend Sunday night having a few pops with your guys, laughing your ass off at things that aren’t even funny, hitting the tables with an attitude that winning the race was only the beginning, and replaying the race in your head, especially that final round when you got the winlight as the crowd went nuts.
You don’t want to leave The Strip early, because no matter what kind of decadent, perverted, profane, or exotic activities are waiting back on the other Strip at the end of the day, you are not in any mood to party when your two-car Top Fuel team never made it past the second round.
A few other things were deeply annoying this weekend. Specifically, oildowns.
Qualifying was a horror show, especially on Friday. I heard that Graham Light, the field general for the NHRA at all the national events was thoroughly P-O’ed because of all the delays caused by oil on the track. Eliminations were just as bad. Getting two pairs of fuel cars to run back-to-back on Sunday was the exception rather than the rule. Left lane, right lane, everywhere. How about on Friday when Jeg Coughlin tossed his motor after the burnout and dumped a crankcase-full of sticky synthetic oil all over the starting line? One of many time-consuming messes. Oh, did I mention Morgan blew the rods out of his engine in the last qualifying session? Yup, more oil.
I saw him at the top end after he and the car were towed to the turn-off area and he was mad at himself. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!” he muttered. “Shoulda’ shut it off. I knew it was struggling.”
As aggravating it is to everyone in the grandstands to have to sit through a cleanup, Morgan’s funk reminded me of something.
Blown engines don’t cost me anything except having to wait a little longer to see the next pair. I don’t have to pay for the broken parts or the oil, I don’t have to pay for the gasoline that the Safety Safari trucks and sweepers burn, I don’t have to pay the oildown penalties, and I certainly don’t have to grab a broom while wearing a big, heavy fireproof suit and sweep a 130-degree racetrack until the oil is mopped up. For everyone but me (and the fans), oildowns are crap-ola.
But the weather in Las Vegas was super, the crowd was huge—as it usually is at that event, and the women that come to the race…..I mean the FREAKING WOMEN who come to the race in Vegas are ultimate, babe-o-licious visions of feminine perfection. (Well, not ALL of them but the hotties definitely hold a majority.) It’s one of my favorite events to attend and I’ve been to all of them, most more than a few times. I just wish my friends Morgan and J.R. were winning more rounds and getting into the winner’s circle. Losing is bogus.
Especially in Las Vegas.
Hey, John Force didn’t even qualify. Kenny Koretsky qualified No. 1 in Pro Stock then lost to Greg Stanfield in the second round—on a holeshot. Think that hurt? “Hot Rod” Fuller had his $150,000 Lamborghini Diablo burn to the ground two weeks ago and he went down in Round 1 in Vegas—his home track. How do you think he’s feeling lately?
Although it’s losing that keeps the casinos in business, it also prevents drag racers from celebrating a victory on Sunday night and helping those casinos stuff their cash drawers.
BTW: Morgan and J.R. are both out of the top ten.
Let’s go to Atlanta.