Anxious Morgan drives himself out of contention in St. Louis
(9-30-2012) MADISON, IL – In his first round Pro Stock matchup against past world champion Mike Edwards, Larry Morgan had everything going right, except being a little early shifting his Lucas Oil Ford Mustang into third gear.
"I shifted too early," Morgan said. "If I would have driven a little better, I would have won that round. I left in good time, but shifted too early."
Morgan got a .032 second advantage off the starting line and ran neck-and-neck with Edwards until half-track, which is where Edwards pulled away.
At the finish line, Edwards crossed in 6.537 seconds at 211.63 mph with Morgan right behind in 6.575 seconds at 209.62 mph.
"We were on pace to run a number we thought was a winner," Morgan said. "I just messed up. But we won't make the same mistake twice and we'll move on to the next race."
During the course of the weekend, Morgan said the wear and tear of running five races in a row started to catch up with the Lucas Oil team.
"We've got cylinder heads leaking real bad," Morgan said. "We've got to fix all that before we get to the next race. Six races in a row is hard on men and machines. One of my crew has a hernia, so he's on the shelf."
Sunday's Midwest Nationals is the third race in a regularly scheduled four consecutive race string. However following the rain that stretched the U.S. National across two weekends, it turned that stretch into six straight weeks of racing.
"We're going to head back to the shop as soon as possible, make sure I've got all the material I need to make the repair and fix it before we go on to the next race."
The finale of this six race string is the USJ Auto Plus NHRA Nationals from Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa. Qualifying starts on Friday.
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