Lucas Oil pro Morgan has confidence after solid Gatornationals

GAINESVILLE, Fl – Lucas Oil Ford Mustang driver Larry Morgan carries a record and a lot of confidence to the next Pro Stock race after a solid weekend at the NHRA Gatornationals this weekend at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville.

Morgan became the quickest Ford driver in Pro Stock history when he qualified No. 10 with a pass of 6.529 seconds at 211.69 mph. He also made two other good runs in qualifying, following up a solid test session in Bradenton, Fla., last week.

“Hey, we had a good weekend,” Morgan said. “We set the record for a Ford, and I’m proud to have that one. We’ll get back to work and be ready for Vegas.”

The next race on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule is at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in two weeks. Morgan hopes for improvement there, too, but he and his team need to get a handle on a new clutch.

“We ran good in testing, but the clutch was still slipping a little bit,” Morgan said. “We made a good run in Q1, but it slipped a little more every time in qualifying, so we knew we had to do something.”

Morgan and his small team installed a new clutch unit and tried to make the correct adjustments to the tune-up in Q4.

“With a new clutch, if it’s heavy you never know how heavy it is,” Morgan said. “We made that Q4 run, and it was really heavy and blew the tires right off.”

Further adjustments were made, but in the first round of eliminations Sunday against Vieri Gaines, Morgan left .088-second too soon and took a red-light.

“When we tested, we tried a new hood scoop that worked a little bit better,” Morgan said. “But it worked a little too good because it’s a little harder to see the Tree, and I guess I took off too soon.”

Morgan’s car also reacted poorly off the starting line again. While Gaines made a run of 6.571 seconds at 211.56 mph, Morgan lifted off the gas soon after he left the line.

“We took clutch out but we didn’t take enough, I guess,” Morgan said. “When I let it out, it totally blew the tires right off. You could see all the tire marks on the track afterward.”