Lucas not fazed by early exit in Gainesville

GAINESVILLE, FL – Looking to pull out an upset over the top qualifier, ProtectTheHarvest.com Top Fuel driver Morgan Lucas’ day came to an early end with a first-round loss Sunday at the NHRA Gatornationals at Auto-Plus Raceway.

Pulling up to the starting line alongside No. 1 qualifier Shawn Langdon, Lucas was ready to give it all he had to advance to the next round; however, as soon as Lucas hit the gas the tires went up in smoke, ending his chance of taking down the top seed.

“The clutch just got hot early, so as soon as I hit the gas the tires were spinning,” Lucas said. “I think we found out why that happened though; it was just something silly on our end.

“We still showed up to our first race of the year and got the car qualified despite some initial issues, so no complaints out of me. I just want to go to the next one and get everything right that time around. Hopefully if we can do that, we will have better success.”

Being in the unique position of running part-time, Lucas relied on the help of his teammate Richie Crampton and his Lucas Oil crew throughout the weekend. Lucas knows that without that extra help, he wouldn’t have felt as confident as he did on race day.

“I just can’t thank my crew enough; they put in so much effort just to get us to where we were today,” Lucas said. “Also a big thanks to (crew chief) Aaron Brooks and the entire Lucas Oil/GEICO team for all the extra effort they put into helping our team out when we needed it. This was a real Morgan Lucas Racing team effort this weekend.”

Lucas will continue running his limited schedule when the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season heads to Atlanta Dragway, May 15-17, for the NHRA Southern Nationals