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Reading: Morgan Lucas preview

Lucas will learn the value of teamwork in Reading READING, Pa. (Oct. 7) -- Top Fuel driver Morgan Lucas enters this weekend's 26th annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals without a crew chief in charge of his 8,000-horsepower GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil ...

Lucas will learn the value of teamwork in Reading

READING, Pa. (Oct. 7) -- Top Fuel driver Morgan Lucas enters this weekend's 26th annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals without a crew chief in charge of his 8,000-horsepower GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil dragster. Instead, the sport's youngest nitro driver will rely on a group effort to find a good tune-up for Maple Grove Raceway.

Lucas parted ways with tuner Jimmy Walsh after the NHRA's last stop in Dallas and hasn't signed a replacement in time for the Reading race so he'll lean on assistant crew chief John Defilippis to help get the car set up like their teammate Shawn Langdon's Lucas Oil/Speedco dragster, which is tuned by John Stewart and Joe Barlam.

"We have a strong braintrust of guys to get us through the weekend," Lucas said. "We haven't found a long term solution just yet but John, Stewie and Joe have been working together for a long time and we don't expect there to be any major issues.

"We'll approach this race like any other. The first goal is to get the car from A-to-B with a decent time in qualifying. Then we'll start picking away at it to try and improve. We did stay after Dallas to test and the car ran really, really well so we're actually kind of excited about the possibilities."

Lucas is a past winner at Maple Grove having taken the Top Alcohol Dragster trophy there in 2004. That same season he earned his Top Fuel license at the facility when he got the call from Joe Amato to turn pro.

"It's a fun track and one I have some great memories of," Lucas said. "I've always liked the place. It would be great to go back and have another solid weekend to put a positive spin on these last two weeks because it's been pretty hectic.

"The track is usually in great shape, nice and smooth, and if the weather is cool like it's supposed to be and we don't get any rain, we could all be very fast.

"Mom and Dad will be there and a lot of the execs from GEICO headquarters are driving over so it'll be a good weekend to pick up the pace and run some numbers."

-source: powersports racing

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