Morgan hoping to shake off bad Sonoma luck for eliminations

SONOMA, CA – Lucas Oil Pro Stock driver Larry Morgan isn’t a superstitious person, but he’s ready to make some drastic changes to alter his luck at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals on Sunday at Sonoma Raceway.

Morgan likes to wear his favorite brand of underwear on Sundays with “Lucky” written on the waistband, but after a difficult Saturday in Sonoma, he has a different plan.

“I think we’re going to put ‘un’ in front of ‘lucky,’ ” Morgan said. “No, I have a better idea: I think we’ll burn them. Maybe that will take this curse off us.”

Morgan’s misfortune Saturday mirrored those of the Chicago Cubs, who haven’t won a baseball World Series since 1908. Morgan’s drought isn’t that long, but it might seem like it this weekend.

After having mysterious carburetor issues Friday, Morgan ran better in Saturday’s first session. He qualified No. 13 with a pass of 6.660 seconds at 208.75 mph, but on that run in the third qualifying session, the engine in his Ford Mustang suffered a problem.

“We’re not sure what happened,” Morgan said. “(Son) Nick is going to look at it, and I hope it was just a valve.”

That engine, M-86, was removed, but a backup couldn’t be installed in time for the fourth qualifying session, which Morgan was forced to miss. The backup, M-87, was completed just in time for the team’s hauler to leave for Denver — the start of the three-race Western Swing — and could not be tested on the dynamometer.

“We’re going to do some laps on the road course here to check it out,” Morgan said with a chuckle. “Think they’d let us do that?”

Morgan is joking, of course, but he has confidence in his team and car going into Sunday. He’ll line up against Greg Anderson, who qualified No. 4 with a pass of 6.551 seconds at 211.93 mph, in the first round of eliminations.

“We’ll go up there and try to kick his butt,” Morgan said. “That’s all we can do. We’ll be all right.”

Final eliminations begin at noon, Sunday. ESPN2 will carry all elimination action.