MORGAN LUCAS RACING MIGHT BE A GOOD BET IN LAS VEGAS
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LAS VEGAS (April 9) – After making major changes on his Lucas Oil team going into the Houston race, the testing the Morgan Lucas Racing group conducted on Monday could be a premonition of events turning them into a good bet for the ninth annual Summitracing.com Nationals on the Strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Lucas. “We’re building and developing a plan on improvement and that’s all you can ask from your crew. We have such a strong unity with the two teams and everyone is pulling together. Never have I had such a great positive response from everyone and with that kind of sensation you know we’re heading in the right direction.”
Las Vegas is one of the show palaces of the NHRA tour. Its scale is unlike any on the circuit and all the amenities are pointed toward the racers.
“It’s one of the best places we race and you have to thank the entire staff of LVMS for keeping everything looking good,” said Lucas. “It’s one those tracks that brings out the best in you and the surface is so smooth. In the right conditions, we could see more 4.40 times and we’re hoping we’re one of them. It’s a beautiful racetrack and we’re hoping to get our first professional win there. It would mean a lot since I had so much success there in my Lucas Oil A-Fuel dragster when I first started my racing career.”
On Saturday night, Lucas and teammate J.R. Todd will be driving Thunder Roadsters in a 15-lap exhibition race at the LVMS Bullring and after cruising at over 300-mph in a quarter-mile, this 3/8 of a mile oval could prove to be a daunting task for the 24-year old driver.
“This is going be a blast,” said Lucas. “I’ve never driven anything like this before, so it will be completely new to me. Having a veteran like USAC champ, Doug Kalitta in the race will swing the difficulty curve way up. It’s all for fun and that’s how I’m going to approach it.”
The start of the ninth annual Summitracing.com Nationals begins on the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday, April 11 with two nitro qualifying sessions starting at 1:30 p.m. (PDT) and 4:30 p.m. Saturday's time trials start at 12:30 p.m. for the nitro classes followed by a second session at 3:30 p.m. The race starts promptly at 11 a.m. on Sunday, April 13.
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LUCAS OIL RACING DRIVER NOTES:
Morgan Lucas has five runner-up finishes, which the Brownsburg, Ind. driver reached in only his seventh (04 Las Vegas2), eighth (04 Pomona2), 10th (05 Phoenix), 20th (05 St. Louis) and 21st (05 Denver) starts. He finished fifth in the 2005 NHRA Top Fuel Point standings with 1,357 points after completing his first full season on the competitive 23-race NHRA circuit. He finished 11th in 2006 and 15th in 2007.
Lucas' quickest elapsed time is 4.474 seconds, set on Feb. 12, 2005 at Pomona Raceway. He sped to his fastest top speed of 333.33 mph on Feb. 9 in the final round of qualifying at the 2008 CarQuest Auto Parts Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. He has won two low qualifier awards. His first on May 14 at the Atlanta Dragway recording a time 4.541 seconds and Oct. 22 on ‘The Strip’ at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway setting the pace with his run of 4.508 seconds. Morgan Lucas’ first Top Fuel event came behind the wheel of the Joe Amato-owned dragster at the 2004 Lucas Oil Nationals at the Brainerd (MN.) International Raceway on August 15, 2004. DOB: November 27, 1983.