Career-Best Run Lands Lucas Top Spot in Top Fuel Qualifying
Morgan Lucas (Photo courtesy NHRA/National Dragster; Click to enlarge)
Top Fuel pro Morgan Lucas will defend the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals title from the No. 1 spot after GEICO/Lucas Oil-sponsored racer from Indianapolis posted a career best time and top speed during Saturday’s final qualifying session.
“Our confidence is higher now than even when we went to the finals last year,” Lucas said. “We didn’t even get into the show last year until Saturday, and we were hoping the rain would quit that morning. We got rain today, and lost the final qualifying session, but we’re on top so we’re extremely happy.”
Saturday broke overcast and cooler and it looked like the clouds might open up at any moment. The weather held off long enough for Lucas and the GEICO team to throw down the gauntlet, running a picture-perfect 3.783 second pass at 325.06 mph and maintaining a grip on the fifth No. 1 qualifier of his career.
“I can’t take any credit for that run,” Lucas said. “I just hit the gas and try to keep it as straight as I can. They’ve given me the best possible racecar they could give me. It’s well put together and consistent – it’s everything a driver could ask for.”
Lucas did admit to a little scoreboard watching after throwing the parachutes following that blistering run, which was the only car on the property to run in the 3.70s.
“It felt really good going down the track, so I did look at the scoreboard,” Lucas said. “I was so elated, I couldn’t get out of the car fast enough. I mean 325 mph would have been a good speed to run to the quarter-mile. We anticipated it would run a 3.79, because we didn’t know what the track was going to be like. It’s such an exciting day for the whole team.”
Lucas said while this version of GEICO Top Fuel team is still in its early stages, there are already a lot of positives cropping up.
“Seeing how (crew chief) Aaron Brooks does things, I’ve been impressed,” Lucas said. “He did a great job of tuning Funny Cars in the past, but seeing what he’s doing now, it’s amazing. We’ve got a good group of people put together who know their roles and Aaron can focus on tuning the car and not the mechanical side of it.
Brandon Bernstein (File photo by Ian Tocher; Click to enlarge)
“I’ve never had a foundation like this in the past. I’m trying to be a little guarded because you can have three great rounds in a row and the racing gods will knock you down a peg or two. Right now, the great rounds are coming and I’m proud to drive this car.”
Meanwhile, after a couple of nervous moments for the MavTV/Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster early in the weekend, Lucas’ new teammate, Brandon Bernstein, pulled it all together on Saturday and qualified fifth. Under threatening skies and with the pressure on, Bernstein and the MavTV crew stepped to the line in Round 3 and rattled off a 3.836 second pass at 308.85 mph to more than secure a spot in the show.
“The MavTV car is looking great,” Bernstein said. “We did have an issue with the idler pulley on Friday, but those things happen. Lucky for us they happened during qualifying and not on race day.
“That 3.83 was nice, and would have run a little bit quicker but it dropped a couple of holes late. It seems like we’ve got a really good combination going into Sunday. It should go right down there and run in the low 80s.”
Rain washed out the final round of qualifying, so that Saturday run became especially important. Bernstein said he was impressed with the way the crew let Friday’s disappointment roll off their backs.
“It’s a total bummer to have to be shut off at the starting line,” Bernstein said. “Everybody hates that. It’s the worst. The team did just did a great job of rallying back around. We fixed what needed to be fixed, and we got back up there today and everything was perfect.
“Those things happen, and everybody faces that kind of adversity. We did a great job of picking ourselves back up and getting ready for the next day.”
Bernstein, who is running his first race for Morgan Lucas Racing, squares off against No. 12 qualifier David Grubnic in the first round on Sunday. Grubnic’s best qualifying time was a 3.895 second pass a 315.42 mph.
“I really don’t pay a lot of attention to matchups until the final,” Bernstein said. “I don’t worry about it. You want to focus in on being shallow staged to you can get as much out of the car as you can and make a good run.”
Eliminations for the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals get under way at 11 a.m. PST from Pomona.
