Morgan Lucas Racing
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Sun, May 18th 2008
I didn’t make the trip to Bristol this weekend but thanks to the glorious immediacy of the Internet and several drag racing websites--along with a cell phone—I never feel as if I’m that far away from a national event. Things for the guys looked pretty promising during Top Fuel qualifying. There were only 16 cars on the entry list. Every pays, everyone plays.
Morgan wasn’t exactly a Cruise Missile in qualifying. It became apparent that a solid 4.50 car was going to be needed on Sunday to drill through eliminations. Morgan didn’t have one. His 4.728 was his best qualifying pass and he knew that the Luck fairy was going to have to be working on his tuneup Sunday morning. However, the Luck Fairy was in the other lane in the first round.
Remember Morgan’s 4.728? That would have been enough to beat Antron Brown’s 4.901. Both cars smoked the tires and both drivers did their best pedaling thing but Antron got hooked up harder and sooner than Morgan.
Morgan had a better light but that didn’t mean diddly-squat when the round was over. Another FRL for the Lucas kid and for those of you scoring along at home, that’s the third in a row and the fifth one this year. Who’s got a fresh set of Rosary Beads?
J.R got to Round 2 before getting stopped by Tony Schumacher—who rolled over everyone on Sunday. J.R. gave Tony fits in his rookie year but hasn’t had nearly the same kind of whammy on the five-time champion in ’08. Anybody curious as to how many round wins those two dudes have altogether this season? I’d rather not get into that.
I saw myself on the Russo & Steele Collector Car Auction show on ESPN2 Sunday morning at 11:30, about the same time eliminations were starting in Bristol. I was having more fun in my family room at that point than Team Lucas was at Bristol Dragway, and when it began raining in Bristol as the semi-finals were underway, I could only imagine how the fun factor at the Thunder Valley Nationals was sliding downward. I’ve been at that race many times, covered Super Chevy Shows and Pro Modified events down there as well and the rain comes in quickly, comes down hard, and takes its time pulling out in that part of Tennessee. And it takes a while to dry the track because the relative humidity down in that valley slows the evaporation process.
The best Japanese steak house I’ve ever filled my face at, the Kobe in Bristol, however, is a great place to end the day after watching the NHRA’s Safety Safari make endless laps with the jet trying to dry the track. Of course, the race ran so late on Sunday because of the crappy weather, the Kobe would have been closed long before I could have gotten there. But I digress….
Tony Schumacher won another race from the No. 1 qualifying spot, ran two 4.51’s, a 4.50, and a 4.55 meaning he ran low elapsed time in every round, and in the final against Larry Dixon, he had a .037 light. What a total rout.
Topeka in two weeks. Maybe things will get better. I know the Japanese steak houses in Kansas aren’t as good as the Kobe.