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Sun, Aug. 17th 2008
Only Six Points from 10th and 10 points from Ninth
READING, Pa. – If the nearness of the NHRA Top Fuel points standings wasn’t enough to show you how tight and competitive the racing in that particular division was, one needs look no further than Lucas Oil Stabilizer racer, Morgan Lucas . The 24 year-old driving phenom leaves the Toyo Tires Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway an immeasurable six points away from a spot in the Countdown to the Championship and only 10 points away from a ninth-place seed with only one race remaining before the stage door closes on earning a him a berth into the elite Top 10.
Lucas’ first round of eliminations placed the Brownsburg, Ind., resident up against Bob Vandergriff. His pass in the opening round was self-evident of the progress the Lucas Oil team has achieved since acquiring the talents of tuner, Jimmy Walsh in running a time of 3.921 seconds, 305.15 mph to Vandergriff’s time of 4.014 seconds, 306.33 mph.
Advancing to the quarterfinals and keeping up his points contention, he raced Clay Millican only to be upset on a hole-shot loss when Lucas covered the 1,000 feet distance in 3.963 seconds, 289.32 mph to Millican’s slower, but winning elapsed time of 3.994 seconds, 292.58. The margin of victory was a slim seven-thousandths of a second (.007)
“The bottom line is you go up there and sometimes you just try too hard,” said a crestfallen Lucas. “That particular time I saw too much of the tree and took myself out of my game by wondering where he was in his staging. Sometimes you have to stop thinking and just start racing and put the points about as far away as you can. I just have to get that kind of stuff out of my head and I’ll be fine. The crew is working so hard and we felt we had a better car than him that time and it was my fault and we should have won.”
Lucas qualified in the No. 5 position on the Top Fuel ladder with a race weekend best time of 3.889 seconds, 307.16 mph.
The celebrated 54th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, NHRA’s biggest race of the season, is up next on the schedule over Labor Day weekend. The ‘Big Go’ as it is referred to, is the oldest and most prestigious event and will be held from August 29 through Sept. 1 with professional qualifying kicking off on Friday at 6:30 p.m.