Lucas Oil pro Morgan has fond memories of U.S. Nationals

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Lucas Oil Pro Stock driver Larry Morgan has a lot of memories from his long career in NHRA, but one of his greatest came at the site of this weekend’s race, the 60th annual Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.

Morgan has five final-round appearances at Indy, including four in a row from 1989 to 1992. It was the 1989 race that was memorable.

“I’ve done well there,” Morgan said. “It was the first NHRA Pro Stock race I ever won. I won an IHRA race the week before. That was when the 500-inch guys could run the 800-inch guys, and the 800-inch guys had to put 250 pounds on their cars.

“I won the IHRA race and beat Pat Musi in the final. The next week I was able to go to Indy and win that race by beating Bob Glidden. That was a really cool deal, really cool.”

Morgan also won a special Pro Stock race — now known as the K&N Horsepower Challenge — by beating Warren Johnson at Indy that same weekend, and both wins came two weeks after his youngest son Nick — now a crewmember for the Larry Morgan Racing team — was born.

“It was exciting because Nick had just been born,” Morgan said. “He was 2 weeks old and I was on a tear. I was pretty good then.”

Morgan is still one of the top drivers in the class, though he has struggled with his race car in 2014. His small, family-run team is trying to compete with multicar powerhouses, but Morgan is a hard worker who won’t quit trying to improve.

“We’ve been running a four-link bar that I don’t believe is very good for the car,” Morgan said. “I’m not really happy with it, but we’ll go back and work on that and try to get everything right.”

And maybe Morgan can create some new Indy memories when qualifying begins Friday with a single round at 6 p.m. and continues Saturday with sessions at 2:30 and 6 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Eliminations begin at noon, Monday. ESPN2 will carry 12 hours of coverage of the race.