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| · 2013 Formula One F1 Driver Line-up, Rumor Round-up & 2014 Silly Season Rumors - February 10th (Feb 10, 2013)
· 2013 Formula One F1 Driver Line-up, Rumor Round-up & 2014 Silly Season Rumors - February 9th (Feb 9, 2013)
· 2013 Jerez: Formula One F1 Friday Test Results - Raikkonen, Lotus Fastest! (Feb 8, 2013)
· 2013 Jerez: Formula One F1 Thursday Test Results - Massa, Ferrari Fastest! (Feb 7, 2013)
· 2013 Jerez: Formula One (F1) Wednesday Test Results - Grosjean, Lotus Fastest! (Feb 6, 2013)
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2013 NHRA: Lucas Oil Veteran Morgan Is Excited As A Teenager About Season Opener
Even though Lucas Oil Ford Mustang driver Larry Morgan has been part of the Pro Stock wars for more than 25 years, he still gets excited for the NHRA season opener.
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At this weekend's O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, which kicks off the 2013 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, Morgan will welcome the new season with the same enthusiasm as always.
"I still get pumped up for the season," said Morgan, who ran his first Pro Stock race in 1987. "I've never lost any of that drive. I still like to do it, and I like the challenge. I still get kind of wound up about it. I'm very excited about going to Pomona and getting the season started, I can tell you that.
"When that feeling goes away, I'm not going to do it anymore, but that's still a long way off. I'll be like 'the Greek' (veteran Top Fuel driver Chris Karamesines, who is in his 80s). I don't have any reason to quit. I'm lucky to have Lucas Oil, Summit, Speedco, and all of the other people who support us."
Morgan, 58, has raced in 543 Pro Stock events in his long career and has won 10 times. He reached the Countdown to the Championship last season thanks in large part to his driving prowess; of his 11 round victories last year, five were on holeshots over higher-qualified drivers.
Morgan is a throwback in the sport. He's actively involved in all aspects of his race team, from building engines to working on the race car to running the team, and he spent nearly 80 hours a week in his shop in Newark, Ohio, preparing for the 2013 season.
"The biggest challenge to getting ready for the race season is trying to figure out how to do it financially," Morgan said. "We've got the drive and the know-how, and we're not afraid to do it, but the key is getting the funding to do it properly. We have a great sponsor in Lucas Oil, and I'm proud to represent Forrest and Charlotte Lucas. We all do the best we can for them.
"We're running against guys who have budgets 15 times more than ours, and we go out and try to kick their butts, and that's kind of hard to do. It really is. I'm not crying and bitching, but that's the biggest challenge we have.
"Can we do it right? Absolutely. We're doing the best we can with what we've got, and we don't take shortcuts. We're just broke at the end of the year!"
Preparation for the 2013 campaign actually began before the 2012 season ended. Research and development is constantly on Morgan's mind, as well as on the minds of his crew members.
"We were working on stuff at the shop well before the 2012 season had ended," Morgan said. "We were able to get everything put together, and it all turned out real well. You have to think a lot about what things you can work on. I don't think it's going to magically drop out of the sky. You have to be able to figure out the places where you want to work on the engines. R&D work is as important as anything else we do.
"Everything changes so often, and the competition is so tough that now you have to dot all of the I's and cross all of the T's. You have to make sure you do that. Dave Elk spends a whole lot of time on the engines at the shop and they all turned out better. We feel like everything's coming together and we're optimistic about the season."
Morgan spent two days testing in Bradenton, Fla., this week fine-tuning his Mustang for Pomona. That's a 3,600-mile trek from Newark to Bradenton to Pomona, but that's the dedication Morgan undertakes because that's what is needed.
"Everybody involved has to dedicate all of their time to this crazy stuff," Morgan said. "We all chose to do it, of course. Everybody on this team is thinking about everything we're doing. Everybody is dedicated because that's what it takes to do it. I doubt I could get to the racetrack if I had to do it myself. I might be able to get there but that would be as far as it goes. It takes a whole lot of people to make this happen and everybody has to be dedicated to do what we're doing.
"That's the only way it can work. You can't have one guy who does a halfway job and doesn't care. You've got to have everybody thinking the whole time and we've got a group like that."
PaddockTalk Perspective
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