NHRA (RICHMOND) - Lucas Races to Richmond Quarterfinals

Upset minded, Morgan Lucas drove his Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster into the quarter-finals of the second annual Torco Racing Fuels Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park before bowing out of the event against Doug Herbert. Lucas took care of business from his No. 16 starting position after astonishing the capacity crowd by knocking out the No. 1 qualifier, Tony Schumacher. Although it was only his third win against Schumacher out of their previous 16 match ups, the significance of this topic clearly displayed his best run of the weekend in some of the warmest conditions of the entire event. He muscled an elapsed time of 4.575 seconds along with a speed of 322.65 mph, his best of the race, to Schumacher’s time of 4.622 seconds, 311.63 “We had some gremlins to work out of our car and you can now see the results,” said a smiling Lucas. “It was a great run for us and we couldn’t be happier than to have something to show for the crew’s hard work along with all the crew chiefs working so well together.” It appeared momentum was brewing for the upcoming brawl with Doug Herbert in the quarterfinals, but in this NHRA racing episode, Lucas again had another great reaction time (.089 - .107) on his launch. He then posted a time of 4.673 seconds, 310.05 mph to Herbert’s clocking of 4.625 seconds, 314.68 mph in what was described by many press box wags as the best race of the day only to find Lucas in arrears at the quarter-mile stripe by the slim margin of .030 of a second. Lucas anchored the Torco Racing Fuels Nationals qualifying ladder by locking into the No. 16 spot in the competitive field with his clocking of 4.646 seconds, 307.51 mph. Lucas currently occupies the No. 15 position in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel points standings with 666 points. After a well-deserved two-week break, racing resumes at the seventh annual ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals on October 26 – 28 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway www.LucasOil.com