NHRA (LAS VEGAS) - Lucas Races to Excellent Semi-Finals Finish

Morgan Lucas, driving his Lucas Oil dragster, marveled the capacity crowd on the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with his excellent run to the semi-finals before being eliminated by Rod Fuller. His first round match up against Vandergriff was over rather quickly as Lucas powered his Lucas Oil dragster away from the starting line running his best time of the weekend with an elapsed time of 4.517 seconds, 326.87 mph to Vandergriff’s tire-smoking time of 8.276 seconds. He again defeated Tony Schumacher with a time of 4.576 seconds, 321.35 after ‘The Shoe’ lost traction further down the track to record a time of 5.614 seconds, 168.26 mph. It marked the second straight race that Lucas had Schumacher’s number with the last time being in Richmond when he kayoed Schumacher from the No. 16 starting position.

It was in the semi-finals against Rod Fuller that proved to be Lucas’ downfall after losing traction around the mid-track tunnel section of the dragstrip. Lucas ran a time of 5.540 seconds, 176.37 mph to Fuller’s winning pass of 4.636 seconds, 284.93 mph. “We got around Vandergriff in the first round and they were eighth and we were ninth, the closest paired cars of the first round,” said Lucas. “It’s nice to lay one out like that and it was fast early, but the main thing is, it kept charging. The second round against Schumacher, we were there and we took advantage of it to get around him for the second race in a row. As far as our race against Fuller, it was one of those things that generally you just can’t help. It kind of happens and that’s drag racing.” Lucas placed his Lucas Oil dragster in the No. 9 position after his run from Saturday of 4.543 seconds, 328.22 mph.

Up next for Lucas will the final race of the 23-race NHRA POWERade season at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona to be held this upcoming weekend on November 1 – 4 for the 43rd annual running of the Auto Club NHRA Finals.