Current Category: News and Headlines : Racing :
Taps General Manager John Stewart to Lead Both Top Fuel Teams
March 26, 2008
Send to a Friend
Morgan Lucas Racing has made a shift in its team and the realignment now places the tuning duties of Lucas’ Top Fuel dragster and teammate, J.R. Todd’s car squarely on the shoulders of capable crew chief and general manager, John Stewart starting at this weekend’s O’Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park.
The repositioning was prompted by car owner, Forrest Lucas, who formed his NHRA teams in 2006, in his pursuit to have both of his racing operations sharing information in becoming one team with two drivers.
"This is something we’ve been determined to achieve in getting both of our cars running the same and we felt it was the right time to make an adjustment,” said driver, Morgan Lucas. “Stewart will be preparing the cars working with all the team members in an effort of gathering information from both dragsters and deducing what tuning changes are needed to meet the track conditions.”
Former crew chief, Richard Hogan was relieved of his MLR responsibilities last week and his assistant, Bryan Shipman resigned in his decision to side with Hogan.
“We’re looking forward to our new setup having both teams throwing in together for a common cause,” said Lucas. “It will benefit both cars so much in having J.R.’s engine and clutch data to compare with ours looking into which would be the best setup for the entire team. These procedures will double our flow of information in finding out what makes these cars run. We’re in the top 10 in POWERade points and we are looking at improving our Sundays for our fans. This was a necessary step in our growth process and we can’t wait to see the results beginning at Houston Raceway Park.”
The start of the 21st annual O’Reilly Spring Nationals begins at the Houston Raceway Park on Friday, March 28 with two nitro qualifying sessions starting at 3:00 p.m. (CDT) and 6:00 p.m. Saturday's time trials start at 12:00 p.m. for the nitro classes followed by a second session at 3:00 p.m. The race starts promptly at 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 30.
LUCAS OIL RACING DRIVER NOTES:
Morgan Lucas has five runner-up finishes, which the Brownsburg, Ind. driver reached in only his seventh (04 Las Vegas2), eighth (04 Pomona2), 10th (05 Phoenix), 20th (05 St. Louis) and 21st (05 Denver) starts. He finished fifth in the 2005 NHRA Top Fuel Point standings with 1,357 points after completing his first full season on the competitive 23-race NHRA circuit. He finished 11th in 2006 and 15th in 2007.
Lucas' quickest elapsed time is 4.474 seconds, set on Feb. 12, 2005 at Pomona Raceway. He sped to his fastest top speed of 333.33 mph on Feb. 9 in the final round of qualifying at the 2008 CarQuest Auto Parts Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. He has won two low qualifier awards. His first on May 14 at the Atlanta Dragway recording a time 4.541 seconds and Oct. 22 on ‘The Strip’ at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway setting the pace with his run of 4.508 seconds. Morgan Lucas’ first Top Fuel event came behind the wheel of the Joe Amato-owned dragster at the 2004 Lucas Oil Nationals at the Brainerd (MN.) International Raceway on August 15, 2004. DOB: November 27, 1983.
O’REILLY SPRING NATIONALS
TELEVISION ADVISORY
(ALL TIMES EASTERN – ALL PROGRAMS ON ESPN2 HD)
QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS
Saturday, March 29
4:30 P.M. – 5:00 P.M.
QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS II
Saturday, March 29
10:00 P.M. – 11:00 P.M.
NHRA RACE DAY
Sunday, March 30
11:00 P.M. – 11:30 P.M.
FINAL ROUND COVERAGE
Sunday, March 30
4:30 P.M. – 7:00 P.M.
Encore Performance
Wednesday, April 2
2:00 A.M. – 4:00 A.M
