Morgan overcomes myriad issues to qualify No. 12 in Englishtown

ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – Larry Morgan and his Lucas Oil Pro Stock team are looking for a turnaround in fortune after a trying weekend at the Toyota NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

Morgan qualified No. 12 with a best pass of 6.611 seconds at 208.46 mph, but even that run was far from perfect. His other two qualifying passes ended well short of the finish line, as a myriad of problems cropped up Friday and Saturday.

“I heard Jeg (Coughlin Jr.) say they had a ‘comedy of errors’ at Atlanta a couple weeks ago, and he went and won the dang race,” Morgan said with a chuckle. “So I’m going to say the same thing about us: ‘We’ve had a comedy of errors this weekend.’ Think that will work like it did for Jeggie?”

The Pro Stock field got only three chances at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park this weekend, as the first session Friday was canceled because NHRA needed time to work on the racetrack.

Morgan’s first pass was his best, but he fought his Ford Mustang most of the run because one of his rear tires grew more than the other during the run. By the time Morgan got the car back to the pit area, one tire was three-fourths of an inch bigger than the other, and that stagger caused Morgan to have to drive it away from the centerline.

For the first qualifying session Saturday, the line-lock broke, forcing Morgan to sit at the starting line for much longer than usual while he manually got the car, stabbed the gas, and dumped the clutch.

That pass, too, was marred by an electronics failure, as smoke from burning wires soon invaded the cockpit. No data was collected either.

After replacing the wiring for the final session, data was gathered for half the run, but Morgan again had to abort, later discovering that a valve guide had broken.

The engine was replaced Saturday, and Morgan is ready for the first round of eliminations, when he’ll face No. 5 qualifier Rodger Brogdon. Brogdon’s best run was 6.488 seconds at 214.42 mph, but Morgan remains confident.

“We’ll go up there thinking we can win, for sure,” Morgan said “We’ll be able to get all our stuff fixed and put a good tune-up in, and then I’ll try to do my job on the Tree. Hey, we’ll be all right.”

Qualifying highlights will air this evening beginning at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN2. Eliminations start at noon, Sunday, and will be shown in slight tape-delay later Sunday afternoon.