‘Lucky dog’ Larry Morgan hopes to wheel FireAde Camaro to St. Louis win

ST. LOUIS – Larry Morgan and his FireAde Racing team worked hard to improve to the No. 7 qualifying position for the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals on Sunday at Gateway Motorsports Park, and for their efforts, they will face two-time Pro Stock champion Jason Line in the first round, but that’s simply the nature of Pro Stock, especially during the six-race, championship-determining Countdown to the Championship.

“This Countdown is brutal,” Morgan said. “Everybody is going to drive well, and the guy or girl who drives the best is going to win. The cars are that consistent. I need to keep my head out of my rear end and I’ll be fine. I’ve got a good car, and I’m thankful for all the people who support me: FireAde, Lucas Oil, Streamlight, Gray Motorsports. I couldn’t be happier. I’m a lucky dog out here.”

Morgan sits fifth in the Pro Stock points standings after a semifinal finish in Charlotte. His best pass at Gateway was 6.518 seconds at 212.79 mph, an improvement by nearly four-hundredths of a second over his first qualifying pass of the weekend on Friday. He also made a good pass in Q4, giving his Larry Morgan Racing team some momentum heading into Sunday.

“We made four decent runs,” Morgan said. “When we came here we wanted to experiment on how we would try to run on race day because we felt the conditions would stay pretty much the same. Doing that, we changed the car around. We made a change the wrong way. Going back, we would change it the opposite way, so we learned that.”

Morgan said he was one minor adjustment from a top-three pass in Q4.

“We’ve been making real consistent runs,” Morgan said. “If we had a little more clutch the last run, we’d have run a 6.50 or .51. We’re right there.”

Plus, Morgan has been driving well, focusing on making good shifts during each pass.

“They’re putting a camera in the car,” Morgan said. “They’re keeping a good eye on me because when they put the camera in the car, I shift good.”