Morgan Lucas To Tune Himself

[Rat]

Is this knowledge and 3.90 capablilty that he has tuned, was it:

A. Hard work and learning

B. What Dickie Or one of the many tuners may of left

or is it:

C. A "Telephone" tune up

Which one is it?

If Morgan's answer was A then I admire him, but I can't help but think that a guy younger than I am (27) has really learned how to tune a dragster without B or C assistance.

 

[Just Paul]

I doubt Morgan will be in there telling them what head gaskets to use, how much primary weight to run , or making the ignition maps. I think it's more of crew chief by name, and the guys from his and Langdons car (Jon Stewart) are calling most of the shots.

 

[smokemasterJ]

So, I guess that means that if he doesn't do well at Indy, he's the next one to go?

 

[Jer]

Guess Maybe nobody applied for the job and now he is on his own???? Weird move right before the biggest race.

 

[Toejam]

Kids got Balls I will admit, but if he should qualify and win a round or two....

 

[Rat]

Kids got Balls I will admit, but if he should qualify and win a round or two....

But Joe that's my point. If he's tuning from hard work and learning yea i agree with everything you say. But us fans don't know, (and may never know) if it's him tuning from notes that were found or if it's a telephone tuneup or even the new idea, Jon Stewart says press X Y Z. If either of those are correct then it's actually "Ball-less"

 

[john]

Based upon the two conversations I had with Morgan last week, I think he's going to take into consideration what everyone on his crew and Shawn's team tell him.

He originally told me in the podcast that he wanted to make his car more like Shawn's. but, when I talked to John, he didn't want to talk about his potential role in helping Morgan's team.

but, I'll bet John helps with the decisions. that's just my opinion and you know what opinions are worth! LOL

 

[Rat]

Based upon the two conversations I had with Morgan last week, I think he's going to take into consideration what everyone on his crew and Shawn's team tell him.

He originally told me in the podcast that he wanted to make his car more like Shawn's. but, when I talked to John, he didn't want to talk about his potential role in helping Morgan's team.

but, I'll bet John helps with the decisions. that's just my opinion and you know what opinions are worth! LOL

It actually sounds like Morgan is gonna try to overwork John, and the last person they need to lose is him. The teams needs to hire a crew chief and let them take the team and craft it. Sounds like Morgan's issue over the years has been to find a tuner that can get them a title, yet Morgan wants the results OVERNIGHT and will not give a tuner a season to gel.

He needs to stop watch AJR and DSR and watch Morgan Lucas and progress steadily and not fire anyone that can't go to the semi's each week. I bet Dickie was great when the team won and had the points lead, but Morgan had enough. I could even be ok with the move if there was a good free agent crew chief but the market on tuners is not there right now.

 

[ex-nsp]

When reading the topic I thought about the old adage -

"He who represents himself in court has a fool for a lawyer".

No one wants to see Morgan and Shawn do better that yers truly, but, maybe the tuner talent pool is only as deep as it is and they need to suffer and support their tuners 'til the results come 'round.

That's what's wrong with the powers that be allowing as many cars in each category as they do. Said powers have alowed giant BRAIN TRUSTS that'r virtually unbeatable.

8 car fields eventually.

Off the soapbox!

 

[Heavyhauler]

From the other thread just in case you missed it


Until the Lucas group (family) hires a Lee Beard Team Manager type, and give him complete control of all aspects of the race team, they will continue on their path of mediocre performance. The last person who tried too take control was fired in a couple of months. As an observer to me it is obvious, the whole organization is dysfunctional, your team needs to be staffed with people that want to win at all costs period. I'm sure there are a some good employees but on the whole it is house cleaning time top to bottom. The I'm here for the fun of it tour needs to end at Lucas Racing.
Unfortunately it is not likely to happen and the parade of tuners will continue.

 

[clwill]

To be fair, there are people who drive and tune a fuel car themselves (Head, Wilkerson, Densham) but those are usually people with quite a few more miles on their odometers, if you know what I mean...

 

[Sean D, shondoo]

maybe the tuner talent pool is only as deep as it is and they need to suffer and support their tuners 'til the results come 'round.

Nothing more needs to be said than this.

Sean D

 

[Rat]

To be fair, there are people who drive and tune a fuel car themselves (Head, Wilkerson, Densham) but those are usually people with quite a few more miles on their odometers, if you know what I mean...

Yea but the guys you mention do if from hard work and they used years and years of experience before they tuned themselves. And doesn't Greg A, tune Densham?

 

[Randy]

Maybe Morgan (with the support from dad) wants to learn how to run the car himself? Maybe just being the driver isn't satisfying Morgan? Maybe he wants to control his own destiny and learn how to run one of these things himself?

Sure, they could throw more money at a crew chief, but for me I would get about zero satisfaction racing (driving) a car knowing I'm too lazy to figure out how to make a car go fast if I am a gearhead to start with. If Morgan has the drive and dedication (and I think he does) to be the best then that's all the incentive he would need to take the information he's gathered over the last few years of racing and take it to the next level. It takes a certain type of thinking to tune a competitive car and there is no time like the present for Morgan to stick his foot in the water to see if he has that ability.

If you talk to Wilkerson I'm sure he would tell you (Neff, too) there is tremendous satisfaction in managing your own tune up. Probably as much or more so than actually driving the car well. Guys like Neff and Wilk are the complete package and don't have to worry about someone stealing their crew chief with a better offer if the team is running well. And Morgan would be smart to listen to his guys because to me the feedback from the guys working on the car is just as (if not more) important that looking at the computer after every run. It's huge, in fact. That's why it's important to keep the guys happy on any team.

If Morgan isn't satisfied with the crew chief talent he's already gone through it's obvious he'll never be satisfied. This makes me think he's more involved in the skin and bones of the car than the typical hired guns. If he doesn't at least try it he'll regret it forever. 25 years from now he'll still be looking for a crew chief to satisfy him. If he does try it and fails, he'll realize it takes a special talent to tune a top fuel car and he'll admit it's not as easy as it looks. And maybe, just maybe, the next crew chief will get a little more slack.

I wish him well and would encourage him to do it.

RG

 

[Fast Al]

I think Randy makes a great point, and could be exactly what's going on in that camp.

 

[Toejam]

Anybody else see the Title of this thread and think that Morgan was into something else??

 

[willy]

Only you, Joe!

 

[mick]

also think Randy's post is rite on.
i hope he succeeds, a second generation of crew chiefs has been
superseding the famous names of yesteryear for a few years now; IMO the
talent pool is never full enough, especially now with the mega teams
swallowing a good portion of the available 'for hire' talent.

we all see the top 5 evenly matched cars in TF this year.
can you imagine if team lucas, berstein, kalitta,
mcmillen and vandergriff could step up?... now that would be some awesome racing;
a field of 10+ at every event with no favorites.

 

[Rat]

I mean on one side of the coin it's impressive to see what kind of dominance AJR and DSR can bring to the class and the performances are cool to watch, yet on the other side of the coin I wish top-fuel was not as tough as it is. Open competition for maybe 5 cars when just 10 years ago it was an open competition for anyone who qualified. Unless there can be 16 teams that can meet the same levels as DSR and AJR, TF may never be evenly dominated again. It's sad, and this year is only so good cause 5 teams have the same amount of chips in the pot.

 

[DrRocket]

Oh, I don't know. Seems to me there've always been groups of dominant cars in any of the pro classes when you look back. It's just that the dominant teams shift around as time moves forward.