Lucas wishing to close career-best season on a high note

LAS VEGAS (Oct. 26) -- There may be two races left in the 2009 Full Throttle Drag Racing season but 25-year-old Top Fuel driver Morgan Lucas already feels as though he's hit the jackpot in his GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil dragster.

In the midst of a personal-best season, Lucas has accumulated three national event victories, a No. 1 qualifying result, and the first Countdown to 1 playoff appearance of his brief racing career. On top of that, the second car he owns also reached the playoffs and team driver Shawn Langdon is the top candidate for Auto Club Rookie of the Year honors.

"It's been an awesome season all the way around," Lucas said. "Our goals coming into the year were to get both cars in the Countdown, win some races, and establish both of our dragsters as top contenders. I'd say we've done that big time.

"We decided when the Countdown started that we were going to run as hard as we could but we also wanted to make a point of enjoying the ride. The guys we've got on these two crews are some of the best in the business and they worked so hard to give Shawn and me great racecars every weekend. They wanted us to run for the championship and they're a real big part of the reason why we got it done."

Remarkably, with 22 races and a combined 91 elimination rounds in the books, Lucas and Langdon are just 15 points apart in the current rankings. Lucas, who had a career-best finish of fifth in 2005, is currently sixth overall. Langdon trails in seventh place.

"Everyone is really bunched up so we certainly want to run hard in these last two races, go some rounds, and finish as high up as we can," Lucas said. "The championship isn't out of reach but it's not something we're spending time thinking about. I'd rather see Shawn win Rookie of the Year and get a win for the Lucas Oil/Dixie Chopper side.

"Vegas is always a lot of fun. We've got the Children's Speedway Charities poker tournament at The Cannery Casino Wednesday night, the NHRA Fanfest on Fremont Street, and it's Halloween, so I know lots of little goons and goblins will be out at the racetrack on Saturday.

"We plan to stay and test a new injector on Monday. We're actually working on a lot of stuff for next year and it will be nice to go into the off-season with a bunch of new data so we can get after it in 2010."