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Sun, Feb. 21st 2010
PHOENIX (Feb. 21) -- Morgan Lucas knew he needed a big weekend in Phoenix to keep pace with the lead cars in the Top Fuel class. By the time the dust, and rain, settled at Firebird International Raceway Sunday night, his GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil team had delivered with the 26-year-old rising star scoring a semifinal finish at the 26th annual Arizona NHRA Nationals that lifted him from ninth to fifth place.
Although Lucas was pleased with the rebound after a first-round exit from last weekend's season-opening event in Pomona, Calif., his mood was understandably somber after a sad day at the racetrack where an errant tire from Top Fuel driver Antron Brown dragster struck and killed a race fan adjacent to the grandstands.
"My heart goes out to the family of the lady who was killed," Lucas said. "We're a big family in drag racing, and that definitely includes our fans, and whenever something like this happens it hurts all of us.
"I'm sure Antron and his team are just sick about this. I'm glad he was okay because that was a bad wreck. It's terrible that the wheel came off and flew off the track. It makes me sick to my stomach. It really makes what we did on the track seem pretty insignificant."
Lucas opened eliminations with a 3.843-second, 315.49-mph win over teammate Shawn Langdon, who lost traction right off the starting line. He then dispatched a tire-smoking Steve Chrisman with a 3.881 at 303.78 mph, which earned him lane choice heading into the semifinals.
A resurgent Doug Kalitta, a runner-up last weekend, was Lucas' next opponent and this time both drivers' cars overpowered the track. Unfortunately for Lucas, Kalitta managed to get his car to hook back up and was able to streak away for the win, running a 3.983 at 295.14 mph to Lucas' surrendering 6.352 at 116.55 mph.
"The guys pulled it together and really gave me a great racecar today," Lucas said. "With all the rain and as many times as they dried the track and tried to prep it for action, the surface just changed on us. The car turned into an animal and between that and a weird track surface, we guessed wrong on the tune-up and smoked the tires.
"It's so hard to win out here. It may look easy but just getting a single round win can be hard at times. I feel fortunate that our car came around and we had a chance to race for the trophy. We got a few weeks off now before Gainesville so we have time to go home and work on this thing some more. Hopefully, we'll be even better in Florida."
The 41st annual Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals run March 12-14 at Gainesville Raceway in central Florida.