Gainesville: Morgan Lucas Friday summary

LUCAS TIES TOP FUEL LOW ET AT GATORNATIONALS

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 17) -- If the luck of the Irish was present at the 37th annual ACDelco Gatornationals on this St. Patrick's Day, Morgan Lucas took full advantage of it, as he ended the day tied in a very rare situation for the low elapsed time of 4.555 seconds.

However, Lucas will end up second on the 16-car roster to David Grubnic, who duplicated his time, but gained the top position based on the NHRA tiebreaker of the top speed recorded on the run. Grubnic zoomed to a speed of 323.62 mph while Lucas was clocked at 321.88 mph.

"This is our quickest qualifying run, so far," said a positive feeling Lucas. "I'm really happy and have nothing to complain about. It shows we can get down the track competitively and running the new Goodyear tire compound all season has helped us. Our runs are not hurting the engine with the exception of regular maintenance."

On his qualifying run, Lucas could feel the car pulling all the way down the track until just shortly before the finish line, when he felt the car drop a cylinder. If not, the young Californian is confident he would have been No. 1 on the Top Fuel eliminations ladder.

"It was aggravating to drop a hole although I'm sure Dave's car did the same," said Lucas. "He went 323 and I went 321 (mph), which, if you really think about it, is not as fast as Top Fuel cars should be running for miles per hour.

"There's some great air down here in Florida with strangely low humidity this time of year. There are also a lot of trees to give us plenty of oxygen for the engines. It's a beautiful place to drag race, great people, great fans and this place was packed for a Friday. You normally don't see a crowd like this on the opening day. I'm happy to perform like this and my Dad (car owner, Forrest Lucas) showed up just in time for the run. For him to see us make a lap like that makes me just that much happier."

Qualifying continues with two more rounds on Saturday starting at 12:30 p.m. with the final session beginning at 3:30 p.m.

-www.morganlucas.com