Morgan can’t hold off Pro Stock points leader in Denver

DENVER, CO – Lucas Oil Ford driver Larry Morgan had the lead against Pro Stock points leader Erica Enders-Stevens in the first round of the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals on Sunday at Bandimere Speedway.

“I was good for two inches,” Morgan said with a chuckle. “Then the car shut off, shut off.”

Morgan left first with a slight advantage on the starting line, .022-second to Enders-Stevens’ .023, but her Camaro overpowered Morgan soon after the Christmas Tree.

Enders-Stevens sped away with a winning pass of 6.933 seconds at 198.47 mph while Morgan eventually pushed in the clutch and coasted across the finish line with a run of 8.839 at 109.72 mph.

Morgan’s Mustang was plagued with a miss in the engine all weekend, and he and his team initially thought it was a problem with the fuel. The thin air in Denver can plays tricks on Pro Stock’s normally aspirated engines.

“We thought it was fuel related, but now we think it’s something else,” Morgan said. “We learned you can’t run fast if it’s missing.”

Morgan thought he had a problem on the starting line, but crew chief/son Nick Morgan told him it was fine and to go make the run. Morgan did, cutting a stellar light, but the car was not up to the task.

“We had an ignition problem that we thought was a fuel problem,” Morgan said. “You come here and you work on fuel and it’s a miss. On the starting line, it sounds like it’s on six cylinders.”

Morgan will be happy to race closer to sea level next weekend at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway. He and teammate Tommy Lee worked on the chassis tune-up of the two Larry Morgan Racing Fords, hoping to make the cars quicker.

“I think we got the car better,” Morgan said. “We’ll see next weekend about that. Once we get off this hill we can gear it and it’ll be better. We’ll be so much better getting away from here.”