Las Vegas victory high on Lucas Oil driver Richie Crampton’s wish list

LAS VEGAS, NV – Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster driver Richie Crampton has had a stellar start to the 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, and he would love to punctuate it with a victory at this weekend’s SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but he knows that’s a difficult chore for any Top Fuel driver these days.

“It’s extremely hard to win rounds, let alone win races, in the NHRA Mello Yello series,” Crampton said. “The parity in Top Fuel is better than it’s ever been, and the racing is so tight that every single person on the team has to be on point. And you need some luck on race day as well. The competition is fantastic this year.”

Still, as Crampton races in his second season in the class, he has reached one final round and has won at least one round at all four events.

“I’m a lot more comfortable the second year around,” Crampton said. “I think we’ve got what it takes, but it’s never going to be easy to win in NHRA.”

Crampton won twice in his rookie season — in Englishtown, N.J., and Indianapolis — en route to winning the Road to the Future Award as NHRA’s top rookie.

“We all know that we’ve got the equipment and talent at our MLR organization to win a race,” Crampton said. “A lot of times we look at it as not a matter of if but when, but in all reality no one’s going to give it to you. You’ve got to earn those race wins.

“We all know as a team that we’ve got to continue to work hard, and we’ll be back in the winner’s circle before too long.”

A victory in Las Vegas would certainly be sweet for the native of Adelaide, Australia.

“Racing in Vegas, one of the No. 1 destinations in the world, is always pretty exciting,” Crampton said. “There’s also a lot of Australian influence. It’s so close to the West Coast that we find a lot of Australians make the trip over to the Las Vegas races, so I’m looking forward to that.

“We’ve got to focus on trying to make runs and treating it like any other race. We have to execute on race day and try to get that trophy.”

Qualifying sessions are scheduled for 2 and 5 p.m. ET, Friday, and 1:30 and 4:30 p.m., Saturday. Final eliminations will start at approximately 11 a.m., Sunday. Saturday qualifying will be broadcasted live at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and elimination action Sunday will be aired at 5 p.m.