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Morgan Lucas Earns Third Consecutive National Event Title

Morgan Lucas drove his Lucas Oil-sponsored Top Alcohol Dragster to his third consecutive national event win at the 18th annual O’Reilly Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex. Lucas was coming off back-to-back victories at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals and the Carquest Auto Parts Nationals, as well as claiming the Jeg’s Allstars title at Route 66 Raceway.

Lucas has been battling against Alan Bradshaw, David Wells and Tony Bartone all season for the Top Alcohol Dragster national championship. With Bradshaw securing the championship in Chicago Lucas, Wells and Bartone have been chasing second place. Lucas was able to lock in second place after Wells went out in the first round and Bartone lost in the semifinals.

“We put on a good showing this season especially considering this was only my first full season,” said Lucas. “I am not completely satisfied with second place because naturally we wanted to win the championship. Bradshaw has a good team and they had the better car this year. We came on really strong in the last couple of races and have proved we have one of the best cars out here.”

For the eleventh time this season Lucas posted a top three qualifying effort with an elapsed time of 5.335-seconds at 263.69 miles per hour. In the first round of eliminations Lucas was paired against No. 14 qualifier, Chris Ricketts. Lucas had a huge advantage off the starting line with a 0.022-second reaction time against Ricketts’ 0.120-second time. Lucas crossed the finish line first and advanced to the second round with a 5.445-second, 260.11 mph pass.

During the second round of eliminations, Lucas faced No. 11 qualifier Gene Snow. Lucas earned the easy win after Snow left the starting line before the Christmas Tree was activated. After running low E.T. for the round at 5.317-seconds, Lucas earned lane choice over James Copeland II in the semifinals.

Copeland was a little quick leaving the starting line with a -0.011-second reaction time. Once again, Lucas ran low E.T. of the round with a 5.354-second pass earning him lane choice in the final round over No. 1 qualifier, Bill Reichert.

In the final round of eliminations, Lucas was off the starting line first and never looked back. He ran a 5.409-second pass at 263.69 mph against Reichert’s 5.559-second run at 257.43 mph.

“We had a few lucky rounds on Sunday,” said nineteen-year-old Lucas. “The car still ran some great numbers and we are in the final round and that’s all that counts right now. Even though we can’t win the championship this year, we still want to win as many races as we can.”

The next event for Lucas will be the Division 7 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Oct. 31-Nov. 2. Television coverage from the O’Reilly Fall Nationals will air on ESPN2 Oct. 19 from 11:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. (ET) with a repeat scheduled for Oct. 21 from 3:30-4:30 a.m. (ET).

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