"I've been preaching all year to the guys that we need to be consistent, we don't always need to be the quickest car on the grounds _— just need to be within striking distance, giving us the opportunity to win without getting ahead of ourselves."
That sums up every racers thoughts as the 6 race "Countdown to the Championship" gets underway with this weekends Carlyle Tools Carolina Nationals. Morgan Lucas is seeded eighth going into the countdown, knowing fully that there is still much work to be done
" At the beginning of the year we just couldn't get there. I know Aaron was trying so hard, everyone on the team was putting in 100% to get the car to where it needed to be." Morgan Said "But it got to the point where we had to make aggressive changes to the combination a little bit, it wasn't that we weren't running good in eliminations because of the lack of consistency and performance. In qualifying, we went racing against the wrong guys and that was our demise. If we had qualified better, our team would have had greater opportunities to challenge for wins."
Morgan would be the first person to say that he is proud of the teams' continued progress towards becoming contenders for the Top Fuel Title
" The thing that I am most proud of is the progress we made in testing after the Norwalk event in Indianapolis. Aaron made wholesale drastic changes and the car responded quite well to those changes. We seemed to be way to conservative with any setup change last season," said Morgan "But with the changes that we made in testing, it helped us achieve a lot more horsepower and run a bit similar to the car that we had last season." Morgan added "It's a big feeling of relief and it's awesome to see everyone on the team smiling, enjoying themselves.
But the Indiana native isn't ready to count his team a contender for the title in Top fuel just yet
" I do not want to say that we are there and ready to chase for the Top Fuel title as of yet, our priorities are on winning as many rounds as possible which is a key ingredient to wining a championship and our Geico Team is at the stage of winning one round at a time. " Morgan said "To be honest, we try not to set goals that are too high, doing so leads to backfiring on us quite a bit. We try not to put any undue pressure on the team, and helps us to move forwards rather than backwards."
The addition of Brandon Bernstein to the team paid dividends in 2012, but no doubt Morgan misses his teammate due to recent back problems
" The Protect The Harvest team have worked very hard, trying their best to have a great season. But you cannot go thru the stress on your back when you launch at nearly 5 times the force of gravity, so Brandon needed to have his back taken care of, knowing his long term health is of the utmost importance. I admire Brandon for having the wherewithall to make such a tough decision.
The competitive spirit is alive and well in Brandon and Morgan knows it
"First and foremost, Brandon is a competitor and racer. He wants to win races just as much as any other driver would. To him, it's excruciating to see someone else driver his car. But J.R. Todd is a very capable driver and is a perfect fit, plus he gets along great with Brandon really well. "
Morgan's win at the O' Reilly Northwest Nationals made him the eight different winner in the Top Fuel class in 2013, he thrives on such close competition
" I would not be surprised that by the end of this season we see as many as 11 different winners in Top Fuel. Although her points do not show it but Brittany Force and her team are turning the corner in terms of performance, David Grubnic has also run well (though he just missed the countdown by a few points), and who would be remiss in not mentioning how close Clay Millican and his team are to their first win. It shows that the Top Fuel class is so competitive and so close; anyone can win."
The O'Reilly Northwest nationals win marked Morgan's 19th career win, but the pending birth of his and wife Katherine's first child made it much more special
" I told my wife in victory lane that I believe in sympathy pains." Morgan laughed " everyone has said that things change and life has certainly changed for us, and our child hasn't been born yet. It is a very exciting time for the both of us as we await the birth of our first child. He added "I would get upset at the track and see my wife's tummy growing, it places everything into proper perspective. We are at an exciting point in our lives and so thankful.
Morgan is already sensing a rivalry between his soon to be son Hunter and Antron Brown's son Anson who is already a Jr. Dragster in the coming future
" That would be awesome to have that, a rivalry between our two sons compete against one another in the future. Most important thing is to let Hunter choose his own path. If he chooses to become a drag racer that is great. But of course Katherine and I will fully support him not matter what he wants to become in life."
6 races to determine a champion, 4 months until the birth of his and Katherine's son. Yes, The Countdown is On!
