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Morgan Lucas goes into the eighth annual running of the Summitracing.com Nationals on The Strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a new crew chief and a new racing philosophy.
Lucas brought on board veteran crew chief and tuner, Rahn Tobler to his Lucas Oil Top Fuel team with the idea of propelling his operation into the NHRA Countdown to the Championship. With Las Vegas being the fifth event of the young season, Lucas realizes he has only 11 races to get back in the top eight and although he's mired in 14th in the standings, knew a change had to be made.
"We needed to develop a strategy to get us back in the points chase," said Lucas. "Rahn shares our thinking in winning races. We're here to win championships and need to make up some lost ground to gain access into the NHRA POWERade Countdown to the Championship. It's very important to us to make to the inaugural elite class."
Although he was defeated in last year's quarterfinals by his present teammate, Melanie Troxel, who went on to win last year's Top Fuel race, Lucas understands that a great performance could turn his season around.
"Our philosophy now is to improve our qualifying efforts more consistently which we hope will enable better results on Sunday. Las Vegas will be a great place to do all that. It's a perfect place with great media coverage, tremendous fans and a race we all want to win."
When Lucas heard the Vegas casino odds makers marked him as a 20-1 long shot, he chuckled and stated, "Those are the odds you want to have and when you come back, it's even more impressive. They might have counted us out of contention, but that's a bet I would take knowing how good our Lucas Oil team really is under racing conditions. That's what makes this race so spectacular. It has a little bit of everything."
Lucas wants to ignite the fire back in his spirit and with Tobler steering his team, he knows that it's already started.
"In meetings we've had with Rahn last week shows his dedication to us and his will in striving to make our team a winner. He knows there will be a learning curve, but is looking forward getting to the track to see what he can do for us."
New crew chief, new philosophy for Morgan Lucas Racing
Morgan Lucas goes into the eighth annual running of the Summitracing.com Nationals on The Strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a new crew chief and a new racing philosophy.
Lucas brought on board veteran crew chief and tuner, Rahn Tobler to his Lucas Oil Top Fuel team with the idea of propelling his operation into the NHRA Countdown to the Championship. With Las Vegas being the fifth event of the young season, Lucas realizes he has only 11 races to get back in the top eight and although he's mired in 14th in the standings, knew a change had to be made.
"We needed to develop a strategy to get us back in the points chase," said Lucas. "Rahn shares our thinking in winning races. We're here to win championships and need to make up some lost ground to gain access into the NHRA POWERade Countdown to the Championship. It's very important to us to make to the inaugural elite class."
Although he was defeated in last year's quarterfinals by his present teammate, Melanie Troxel, who went on to win last year's Top Fuel race, Lucas understands that a great performance could turn his season around.
"Our philosophy now is to improve our qualifying efforts more consistently which we hope will enable better results on Sunday. Las Vegas will be a great place to do all that. It's a perfect place with great media coverage, tremendous fans and a race we all want to win."
When Lucas heard the Vegas casino odds makers marked him as a 20-1 long shot, he chuckled and stated, "Those are the odds you want to have and when you come back, it's even more impressive. They might have counted us out of contention, but that's a bet I would take knowing how good our Lucas Oil team really is under racing conditions. That's what makes this race so spectacular. It has a little bit of everything."
Lucas wants to ignite the fire back in his spirit and with Tobler steering his team, he knows that it's already started.
"In meetings we've had with Rahn last week shows his dedication to us and his will in striving to make our team a winner. He knows there will be a learning curve, but is looking forward getting to the track to see what he can do for us."
