The Stats: Morgan Lucas’ Historic Gators Performance

On Monday morning during the rain postponed Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Morgan Lucas not only powered his Geico/Lucas Oil dragster to his fifth career Top Fuel national event win, but he also set NHRA stat guy Lewis Bloom’s pen into a frenzy.

Lucas, who made some changes during the offseason bringing aboard crew chiefs Aaron Brooks and Rob Centorbi, qualified No. 1 for the second time in three races in Gainesville with a stellar 3.766-second effort at a track speed record of 326.56 MPH.

After an odd first round in which the parachute deployed early in the run alongside a tire-smoking Brady Kalivoda, Lucas reeled off a succession of stunning and bracket-like laps of 3.747, 3.746, and 3.743 – the second quickest Top Fuel pass in the 1,000-foot era – in defeats of Spencer Massey, Doug Kalitta, and Tony Schumacher. With this row of time slips, Lucas now holds three of the five quickest Top Fuel passes in history, and only Del Worsham (3.735) has been quicker.

In recording those three passes, Lucas also reeled off a staggering statistic: all three passes were under the mythical three-second mark at half track – a feat only accomplished twice in the history of Top Fuel. Lucas recorded half track clockings of 2.999, 2.996, and 2.999 during the quarterfinal to final round stretch. Only Gary Scelzi in the Winston dragster way back in 1999 who carded a 2.99 and Worsham’s all-time quick 2.989 at maple Grove last fall have ever turned the trick, and Lucas did it three passes in a row.

Lucas, with the two No.1 qualifiers and seven round wins in just three races credits the addition of Brooks and Centorbi for the incredible performance and consistency.

“Everybody on our team is extremely competitive,” said Lucas, who is second in the Top Fuel points standings. “I think we’ve finally got really good chemistry going with the addition of Aaron and Rod. It’s rejuvenated the whole program. Everybody’s excited.

“Aaron, what I love about him is he’s not afraid to be aggressive. I’ve never had a crew chief who thought like that. He’s a cautious aggressive. He thinks about things in a really practical way. And it’s nice having a crew chief who’s close to your age.”