Lucas Oil's Larry Morgan reaches second round in Sonoma
(7-29-2012) SONOMA, CA – Larry Morgan's climb up the Pro Stock standings continued on Sunday at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals after he guided the Lucas Oil Ford Mustang to a second round finish.
He beat V Gaines before falling to Mike Edwards in the second round. Morgan and his Mustang were in the first pair of the second round and he said following the nitro cars can make for a tricky tune-up.
"It was too much being in that first pair," Morgan said. "After following those fuel cars you are in a no-win situation. Do don't know if you should slip the clutch like crazy or what?
"I would have wished we had something for Edwards, because we had him by four hundredths of a second on the tree."
Morgan did get off the line first with a.019 second reaction time to Edwards' .060. However Morgan's car ran out of power at about 100 feet and coasted through in 8.266 seconds at 116.74 mph. Edwards ran a 6.587 second lap at 211.89 mph, which was about .05 seconds off his first round ET.
"Being first out even got to Edwards," Morgan said. "His ET then was way off what he's been running and what everyone else was running."
In the first round, Morgan and Gaines had one of the closest races of the Sonoma Nationals. The two veterans got off the line within .001 seconds of one another and it was Morgan who had the horsepower to come out on top with a time 6.565 seconds at 210.47 mph. with Gaines was .005 seconds behind in 6.569 seconds at 210.50 mph.
"That was a good a race as they'll have here today," Morgan said. "We were close on the tree and close at the finish line. I couldn't tell who won. I looked over then beared back down.
"We're going rounds and that's the main thing right now. We need to keep getting points so we can move up into that Top 10 before Indy is over. If we keep doing good we'll get there."
Morgan leaves Sonoma tied with Gaines for 11th place in the Pro Stock standings, and he's just one point behind 10th place Jeg Coughlin heading into next weekend's O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Seattle.
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