Gainesville: Morgan Lucas Friday summary

Consistency Has Lucas In No. 5 Position At Gatornationals

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 16) -- After making runs of 4.65 and by improving in the second qualifying session to lower his elapsed time to 4.602 seconds has placed 23-year old Top Fuel driver, Morgan Lucas into the No. 5 provisional spot on the 16-car roster for Sunday's running of the 38th annual ACDelco Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.

"It's the consistency we've been looking for since we made the changes from earlier this year," said a smiling Lucas. "John Stewart and Lance Larsen have made tremendous strides and with Richard Hogan adding his info has given both of our teams a great tune up. We had three straight 4.50 runs in Phoenix, so I know our guys can get the job done".

After the first round of Friday's qualifying, Lucas was in the No. 3 position and his co-crew chiefs knew the cooler afternoon weather conditions would give them a chance to step it up and did with his time of 4.602 seconds along with a speed of 327.90 mph.

"I couldn't be any happier, but we need to get Melanie's car higher in the program and I have full confidence in everyone to do just that," said Lucas. "We are really getting our act together and appreciate everyone's hard work."

Qualifying continues on Saturday with two more qualifying attempts at 1 and 3:30 p.m.

-credit: lor