Another great qualifying session has Morgan Lucas Racing primed for big race day

RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 10) -- For the 15th time this season, Top Fuel teammates Morgan Lucas and Shawn Langdon both secured top-half starting slots at an NHRA national event, making them favorites for the title of the fourth annual Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.

This time, team owner/driver Lucas has the slightly quicker car as his GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil dragster improved to a 3.838 at 312.06 mph in Saturday's first qualifying session. Langdon wasn't far behind in his Lucas Oil/Dixie Chopper dragster with a best of 3.855 at 311.27 mph. They ended up seventh and eighth on the grid.

"We've got two fast hot rods that have a great chance of winning this thing tomorrow," Lucas said. "What more could we ask for? We're in the playoffs running for wins and titles; this is what we dreamt about when we were kids."

Lucas is coming off his third win of the season as he took home the hardware at the rain-delayed Memphis event on Monday. The victory lifted him to fifth in the points. Langdon closely follows his boss in the point standings in sixth place.

"Our goals right now are for both Shawn and me to finish in the top five and for Shawn to win the Auto Club Rookie of the Year award," Lucas said. "If we achieve those two goals than no matter what we'll be in the hunt for the championship. It's going to come down to the wire because there are some big guns going at it and we're both in the mix. It's exciting."

Lucas draws part-time racer Bobby Lagana Jr. in Round 1. Lagana qualified 10th with a career-best 3.884 at 309.42 mph. The two men have only raced once in the past in Atlanta in 2005 with Lucas taking the win.

On the other side of the ladder, Langdon will square off with Doug Kalitta, who qualified ninth with a 3.865 at 314.75 mph. Langdon is 4-1 versus Kalitta.

"We've got to just do our thing," Langdon said. "Doug is a veteran guy and someone I admire quite a bit. He's usually dead perfect at the tree so you know you have to go up there and put your best foot forward and do everything right to beat him. It's an honor to race against guys like him.

"We've got a good car. We're going down the track with great ETs every pass and we're real happy with how the car is responding. We seem to like these cooler conditions so I hope it stays exactly the same for tomorrow so we can go out there and get after it."

Eliminations begin at 11 a.m. EST.