Lucas and Langdon earn top-half berths Friday in Phoenix

PHOENIX (Feb. 20) -- Top Fuel teammates Morgan Lucas and Shawn Langdon ran similar qualifying passes Friday to open the 25th annual Lucas Oil Slick Mist NHRA Nationals in sixth and seventh place, respectively, on the provisional ladder. Lucas posted a steady 3.879 at 306.46 mph in his GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil dragster, while rookie Langdon went 3.888 at 305.63 mph in his Lucas Oil/Dixie Choppers rail.

"The first thing you want to do at every race is make sure you qualify for eliminations," Lucas said. "We both got that done today so we're off to a good start. It's always a bit of a relief when you earn a position in the field on Friday. It also allows your crew chiefs to get after it in the final two rounds of qualifying because they already know you're in."

Both Lucas and Langdon opened with aborted passes in the highly suspect left-hand lane but returned with solid, if not great, runs in the twilight hours.

"We're doing the team thing really well today," Langdon said. "That was the quickest and fastest run I've made in competition so far since I started driving Top Fuel. It's a real confidence booster for me and the entire Lucas Oil side of the team.

"One of the goals we've talked about a lot for both teams is to have consistent cars that go down the track every time. That forces your opponents to try and beat you with a better run on Sunday because they know that at the very least you're going from A-to-B every time out there. The runs we made today will help us a lot because they were both good baseline runs that we can use on race day. Now we'll try and get quicker."

The teams will try to improve on their times in Saturday's final two qualifying sessions, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.

"We pushed a head gasket out towards the end of our run so I know there's more in this tune-up than what we've showed so far," Lucas said. "It's cool to have both cars in the top half of the field because neither one of us put pour best out there yet. We've both got room to get better and that's what makes me really excited right now.

"I can't wait to get out there tomorrow and see what happens."

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Contact: Geiger Media at 281-354-5769.

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