No, Lucas isn't masterminding a hostile takeover, akin to his successful battle against the rest of the Top Fuel class earlier this season when he won the Atlanta race, rather he'll be on hand with some high-ranking GEICO and NHRA executives to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

In addition to opening the day's trading, the actual GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil dragster Lucas drives down the racetrack in 3.8 seconds at 300-plus mph will be on display in front of the exchange for all to see.

"We get to do a lot of neat stuff but I have to say this might be one of the highlights of my professional life," Lucas said. "I'm really excited and I know the guys from GEICO are fired up. It's going to be very cool to ring that bell and watch all the crazy activity on the floor. And to see my car on the streets of New York will be hard to believe."

Heading into the race weekend, Lucas says the shift to summer temperatures has made the margin for error on his car's tune-up very small. It's a problem they hope to correct at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

"We're fighting the tune-up a little bit right now," Lucas said, referring to his quarterfinal exit in Chicago last weekend. "There's such a small window for it. Once you are in it, the car will really go down the track. We had the quickest time of Round 1 in Chicago and looked like heroes. But if you get outside that window, you get in trouble."

Lucas maintained his sixth place position in the NHRA Full Throttle points through Chicago and stayed within a couple of rounds of cracking the top four. He trails fifth place Cory McClenathan by 19 points and fourth place Larry Dixon by 74 points. But he also picked up some company behind him, with Chicago winner Spencer Massey zooming up to seventh overall.

The 25-year-old said he's got all confidence in the world that the GEICO Powersports team will get a hot weather tune-up sorted out soon and that the car will return to the dominant form it showed when he won his first NHRA Top Fuel race at Atlanta in April.

"Jimmy (Walsh, crew chief) and the guys have been down this road before and we've been able to figure it out," Lucas said. "I've got no doubts we'll be able to get done again. Sure, you get frustrated at times, but you have to stay the course and believe in what you're doing. We'll be okay, and I'm excited to get back to racing."

Qualifications begin at 3 and 6 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Courtesy of Rob Geiger