Morgan Lucas seeks to win at Brainerd

GEICO's Lucas ready to win family's title race

BRAINERD, Minn. (Aug. 17) – After recently reconfiguring his GEICO/Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster, driver Morgan Lucas is ready to let the beast he pilots off the leash at this weekend's 30th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway.

"We're really focused on getting this car down the racetrack," Lucas said. "It's a good track and the weather seems like it's going to cooperate. We want to see what we're capable of doing. Once we get into the fall races, we're going to see a lot of conditions like we'll see this weekend.

"I've won and gone to a couple of final rounds there, so I'm excited."

Lucas sits ninth in the NHRA Full Throttle Series standings with a 94-point cushion over 11th-place Terry McMillen. The Top 10 after the U.S. Nationals will be a part of the Countdown to the Championship, the NHRA's postseason.

It will be a big weekend for Lucas and his family, but Lucas said he couldn't ask for a better race to be partnered with.

"I've never left Brainerd and said I didn't have a good time," Lucas said. "The fans are awesome and they treat my parents with such great respect. It's just a fun event. There's no better place to win at, that's for sure."

The Lucas family will have a big presence at the track this weekend. Forrest Lucas, the company's co-founder, will lead the track walk on Sunday morning.

Although Lucas will be spending the weekend in Minnesota, his thoughts won’t be far from the team home base of Indianapolis, where its citizens are still regrouping after the fatal concert stage collapse last weekend.

"My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone touched by this tragedy," Lucas said. "To have a night that starts as a good time then to have something like that happen has to be terrifying and impossible to comprehend."

Morgan Lucas

Photo by: Ted Rossino