‘Proud night’ for Lucas, Morgan Lucas Racing team

INDIANAPOLIS, I – In the span of about 15 minutes, Morgan Lucas and his Lucas Oil/GEICO team were on top of the world.

Lucas had just sped to the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot for the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals on Saturday at Lucas Oil Raceway in his Top Fuel dragster, and then he darted to the starting line to watch teammate Richie Crampton race his GEICO/Lucas Oil car in the final of the NHRA Traxxas Shootout.

Lucas ended up No. 3 in the order and Crampton lost a close race in the Shootout, but that didn’t diminish Lucas’ smile.

“I’m still proud,” Lucas said. “It was a proud night in general for us.”

Lucas is gunning for two victories in a row after scoring a win at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals two weeks ago at Brainerd Int’l Raceway.

“We have a really good team effort going in,” Lucas said. “I’m really proud of Richie going all the way to the final of the Traxxas Shootout. It’s cool to make it that far; it’s the All-Star Game, and to see our team car make it to that point is a really cool feeling.”

Lucas’ pass of 3.757 seconds at 322.81 mph moved him to No. 1 for a time, though he was bumped to the third spot. Two more qualifying sessions remain Sunday.

“We’ve had some really interesting things happen, just weird stuff,” Lucas said. “The guys aren’t doing anything wrong; it’s just peculiar, to say the least. We had an air fitting break, which caused the motor to go lean. We had a weird valve-dropping issue — these things never drop valves. Just weird stuff.”

The problems had Lucas No. 17 after two qualifying rounds, but Aaron Brooks, who serves as crew chief for both Crampton and Lucas, tuned the car up for a stellar Q3 pass.

“We knew we weren’t in, but Aaron has confidence enough to think we can go down tomorrow,” Lucas said. “So we went out there and tried to shoot one down the track.”