Lucas Oil racer Morgan looking for brighter weekend in Houston
HOUSTON, TX – Shaking off a difficult race in Charlotte, Lucas Oil Pro Stock driver Larry Morgan is optimistic things will turn 
around at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals this weekend.
Morgan was forced to use three engines in Charlotte, and problems forced him to miss two qualifying sessions, a rarity for the veteran campaigner, but Morgan and his team spent the time between Charlotte and Houston repairing engines and adjusting their Ford Mustang’s tune-up.
“We’ve got it all back together and we’re good, so we’re headed to Texas,” Morgan said. “We’re back to normal, and we’ll have one car in my pit, so we’re good to go.”
One of the areas of concern for Morgan was broken valve springs, but the root cause of the breakage bothers Morgan, too.
“We have been tearing them up,” Morgan said. “V. Gaines runs the same ones I do, and he’s been having trouble, too. There were a lot of issues (in Charlotte). We had some trouble with our tune-up. I just don’t think we have enough fuel. Our sensors are giving us false readings, and we keep adding fuel to it and it picks up power, so we’re going to keep adding fuel to it.”
Testing before and during the early part of the 2014 season has been a mixed bag because the information gathered during testing doesn’t seem to correlate with what Morgan knows to be true through his many years of driving Pro Stock.
“The results of what our testing tells us, we’re not interpreting right or something,” Morgan said. “We don’t want to believe what the O2 says. This has happened to me before, so hopefully we get it figured out.”
Morgan should be blessed with good weather and atmospheric conditions this weekend, as Houston is close to sea level and temperatures are expected to be in the low 80s all weekend.
“I always enjoy going there because Houston was one of the first super racetracks that we had,” Morgan said. “It has a good barometer all the time because you’re at sea level. We enjoy going down there and it’s a great place to test. The Angel family is a great family, too.”
Professional qualifying sessions are scheduled to begin at 4 and 6:30 p.m., Friday, and 12:30 and 3 p.m., Saturday. Pro Stock eliminations start at noon, Sunday. ESPN2 will carry a qualifying package from 5 to 7 p.m. CT, Saturday, and eliminations from 6 to 9 p.m. CT, Saturday. Live timing results can be attained at NHRA.com.
