CHARLOTTE, N.C. (March 22) -- Top Fuel driver Morgan Lucas was part of the historic four-wide exhibition race that took place at zMax Dragway last fall. Now the sport's youngest nitro professional returns to Bruton Smith's racetrack masterpiece for the first "real" four-wide race of the modern era -- the inaugural NHRA 4-Wide Nationals.
"I have to be honest, I'm not exactly sure how this four-wide deal is going to work," the 26-year-old Lucas said. "But I do know we would like to win the race because it's going to be something people talk about for a long time."
Lucas entered the season with a racecar he described as "an animal." He and the GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil team have since spent their time trying to tame their 8,000-horsepower beast, recording a season-best semifinal finish in Phoenix.
"We have so much potential and I don't think any of us are completely happy with the start we've had," Lucas said. "One of our top goals this season was to make sure we would be in contention for every race and I can't say we've achieved that so far. The good thing is we've only had three races so we have lots of time to get it going."
This will be an extra special weekend for Lucas as he welcomes the gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic men's four-man bobsled team to the drag strip. Lucas has participated in the annual Lucas Oil Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge presented by Whelen Engineering for several years and his family's company, Lucas Oil, took over title rights to the fundraising event this year.
Bobsled pilot Steve Holcomb and pushers Steve Mesler, Justin Olsen, and Curt Tomasevicz have become friends with Lucas and his family and are quick to credit the BoDyn Bobsled Project, which makes all the bobsleds for Team USA with the proceeds of the Lucas Oil Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, as one of the major reasons they were able to break a 62-year drought and win gold in Vancounver.
"To have Steve and the guys at the track is going to be awesome," Lucas said. "I haven't seen them since they won the gold and I can't wait to ask them all about it. We're damn proud of these guys and it's such an honor for our company to have had a small part in helping them achieve their dreams.
"We've been telling them what it's like to stand on the starting line when a pair of dragsters take off and now we'll be able to show them what it's like when four go off at once. It's going to be something to see. I hope they bring all that good karma with them and it rubs off on the GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil dragster."
Lucas and teammate Shawn Langdon, along with fellow bobsled supporters Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Melanie Troxel, will run special stickers on their racecars this weekend to salute Team USA's gold medal run.
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