Lucas Oil Racing Englishtown Saturday Report

Led by Langdon, Lucas Oil drag racing team ready for race day

Shawn Langdon is relieved to have the Lucas Oil/Speedco dragster back in winning form, but not so excited about his first-round opponent.

After struggling for a couple of races, Langdon qualified No. 7 in the Top Fuel field on Saturday at the 42nd annual NHRA SuperNationals, unfortunately he goes up against teammate Morgan Lucas in Round 1.

"Obviously we want to win for ourselves," Langdon said. "But you don't want to get too pumped up and rub it in to your teammates. We want to well for Lucas Oil and our guys, but we also want our teammate to run good, too."

Shawn Langdon

Photo by: Ted Rossino

Of Langdon's other Lucas Oil stablemates, Hector Arana put his Lucas Oil Buell No. 4 in the Pro Stock Motorcycle field, while his son Hector Arana Jr. will start bike eliminations in the 12th spot. Larry Morgan got in the Pro Stock field on his last run in the Lucas Oil Ford Mustang. He rolls off 15th.

Langdon's Lucas Oil rail is finding that consistent groove it had at the start of the season. He made three solid passes, including a best past of 3.847 seconds at 313.95 mph.

"It might be a chance at redemption for us," Langdon said. "We had to run Morgan first round last year and our parachutes popped out at the starting line. You want to get pumped up because we haven't gone many rounds the last few races."

Lucas had a best lap of 3.880 at 315.86 mph in the GEICO/Lucas Oil dragster.

Hector Sr. put his bike in the No. 4 spot after a pass of 6.850 seconds at 193.13 mph.

"Our first hit, we were happy with it," Arana Sr. said. "But what's good about all these sessions is that each run we made, we picked up a little bit. We were able to tune and go forward, so that's a good thing. Let's see what happens tomorrow."

He draws Jim Underdahl, who qualified 13th with a 6.937 at 191.46 mph.

Hector Jr. qualified 12th after a best pass of 6.930 at 190.75 mph and faces No. 5 qualifier Andrew Hines, who made a top lap of 6.885 at 193.49 mph.

"I actually short-shifted second (on the last run), but I think I was just so anxious to see if it was going to shift," Arana said. "Once it went, I kept shifting, and I stayed tucked in. I knew it was a decent run. I didn't know it was a .93. It just felt good to finally make a run."

Hector Arana Jr.

Photo by: Ted Rossino

If both Aranas win their first-round matchups Sunday, they will square off in Round 2.

Larry Morgan didn't make it past 60 feet until his final qualifying run, but he made that one count, running a 6.562-second pass at 210.57 mph to nab the No. 15 spot and set-up a race against Shane Gray, who ran a 6.510 at 213.46 mph to qualify No. 2.

"We changed everything you could change," Morgan said. "The car got out of whack. We've been fighting a tire issue for a long time, trying to get the intersect point right. It just got out of hand, and we missed it. The intersect point was real high, and we just blew the tires off every time I let the clutch out.

"I used to be nervous when I didn't have enough power, but now I've got enough power. I knew that if I could make a good run, I could get in. I feel good about that. My guys stuck together."

-source: lucas oil racing