Morgan bounces back to grab No. 12 qualifying spot in Houston

HOUSTON, TX – Larry Morgan and the Lucas Oil Ford team bounced back from a difficult race in Charlotte to qualify No. 12 for the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals this weekend.

Morgan was forced to a third engine — and an emergency backup at that — in Charlotte after struggling with parts failures, but he had three good qualifying passes under his belt here and is confident he can go rounds during eliminations.

“I feel good about it,” Morgan said. “We made three good runs and we’ve been getting down the track good. We race Vincent (Nobile), and he’s just as good as anybody to race. Just looking forward to tomorrow.”

Morgan’s official qualifying pass was 6.610 seconds at 209.36 mph, but he made two other runs — in changing conditions — within .026-second of that pass. He was on another good run in Q4 before a broken valve spring slowed him near the finish line.

“We were getting ready to set low e.t.,” Morgan said with a smile. “We were making a good run. We had changed some stuff, and the car responded. It would’ve run a lot better but stuff happens, and these days when stuff happens, it happens to me.”

After that Q4 run, Morgan created a stir in the grandstands by joking about a sale at Baytown Ford on Monday.

“They were interviewing me and they noticed Baytown Ford on the car,” Morgan said. “They said, ‘Let’s give them a plug.’ I was thinking about me tearing something up and I said, ‘Hey, if I win on Sunday, they’re giving cars half off at Baytown Ford on Monday.’ ”

Morgan is 11th in the Pro Stock points standings and could use a good showing to close in on the top 10 that will make up the Countdown to the Championship later this season.

He’ll face off against Nobile, the No. 5 qualifier, in the first round Sunday. Nobile’s top pass was 6.585 seconds at 210.57 mph.