One of the few things that changed Saturday during the second day of qualifying for the 12th annual
United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals was the positions held by Top Fuel teammates Shawn
Langdon and Morgan Lucas. The duo are fifth and sixth on the grid, with Langdon's slightly improved
3.872 at 308.43 mph from Round 3 allowing him to move around his boss by three-thousandths of a
second. Lucas' best showed a 3.875 at 305.56 mph.
"Both cars are qualified high and we're pretty happy with the position we're in," Langdon said.
"It's important to put it all out there in qualifying and go into race day with a good attitude.
The mood in our pit is good and I know the guys are ready to win."
As the No. 5 qualifier, Langdon and his Lucas Oil/Dixie Choppers dragster will open eliminations
against Brandon Bernstein, who qualified 12th with a 3.927 at 298.60 mph.
"I'm happy to get Brandon early even though we know he has a stout car," Langdon said. "He's one of
the guys ahead of us in the points so if we can get past him we'll be making up ground instead of
losing it. As the season goes along, it gets harder and harder to catch people.
"The guys are giving me a great car. We ran a 3.92, a 3.88, a 3.87, and a 3.89 -- that's pretty
damn good no matter how you look at it. It would be awesome to carry this performance over to race
day and go some more rounds. We're ready."
GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil pro Lucas will start his quest for his second victory of the season
against Doug Kalitta, the No. 11 qualifier with a best of 3.921 at 302.28 mph.
"I'm super happy for Shawn and everyone on that side of the pit," Lucas said. "We're trying to get
this car to run as consistently as their car. We look great at times but then we'll turn around and
have some sort of problem. We are searching for that tune-up that earned us the win in Atlanta. The
guys are killing themselves to get it done. Hopefully, we'll find the consistency Shawn's team has
and start winning a bunch of races."
Eliminations begin at 11 a.m. Sunday.
