Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Keeping Pace

Lucas, Capps, Stanfield and Hines Top NHRA St. Louis Qualifying

NHRA Top Fuel driver, Morgan Lucas, who topped St. Louis qualifying on Saturday. (Photo courtesy NHRA) (The Spokesman-Review)
NHRA Top Fuel driver, Morgan Lucas, who topped St. Louis qualifying on Saturday. (Photo courtesy NHRA) (The Spokesman-Review)

Morgan Lucas, Ron Capps, Greg Stanfield and Andrew Hines take No. 1 positions in their respective NHRA categories heading into eliminations on Sunday at 11:00 a. m.

Courtesy: NHRA Media Relations

LUCAS TAKES NO. 1 QUALIFIER AT GATEWAY INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY; CAPPS, STANFIELD, HINES ALSO NO. 1 AFTER QUALIFYING
MADISON, ILL –  Morgan Lucas continues his hot streak as he took the top spot in Top Fuel at the O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway on Saturday. 
Two qualifying sessions took to the track on Saturday after rain cancelled qualifying for all classes except for Pro Stock Motorcycle on Friday.  This is the seventh of 24 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.
Ron Capps, Greg Stanfield and Andrew Hines also take No. 1 positions in their respective categories into eliminations on Sunday at 11:00 a. m.
Lucas wheeled his GEICO/Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster to a pass of 3.881 seconds at 299.46 mph.  This is his first No. 1 qualifier of the year, the third of his career, and comes off of his win at Atlanta.
“It feels great to keep the momentum going.  You never want to have something really big happen and then just fail the next week miserably, you always want to do the best you can,” said Lucas.  “Its not making big changes, not doing anything radical and getting ourselves lost, staying down the path we’ve been going down.”
In Funny Car, Capps, a three time GIR winner, finds himself atop the field in his NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger R/T with a 4.111-second pass at 297.02 mph to take the top spot. It's Capps’s 9th career No. 1 qualifier and the second of this season.
“For a while number one always felt like you were a little bit jinxed going into Sunday and it didn’t really matter as long as you were top four and had lane choice,” stated Capps.  “The more impressive thing was to be rained out yesterday and have Ed McCulloch put me into a car that ran 4.11 in both lanes.”
            Stanfield posted the quickest time in the Pro Stock category, as he piloted his Attitude Apparel Pontiac GXP, to a run of 6.573 at 210.37.  This was the first No. 1 qualifying position for Stanfield since the 2006 race in Reading, PA.
            “Usually for our team if we lose two runs it is trouble for us.  We ran good in Atlanta and conditions are pretty similar which helped us a lot,” said Stanfield following the qualifying session.  “Losing two runs probably helped us because there are some other teams that are stronger than us so maybe it played in our favor.” 
            Hines was the leader of the Pro Stock Motorcycle field and also set a new national elapsed time record with his pass of 6.860 seconds at 192.14.  This was the third top qualifying position of the year for Hines and the 25th of his career.
            “It was really going in the first eight-mile and after that it really sailed through there and had enough momentum to carry on through and get that number,” said Hines.  “It really didn’t feel that fast and I didn’t know anything until people called me up and said number one qualifier”
Eliminations begin Sunday at 11 a.m.



Keeping Pace

Motorsports correspondent Doug Pace keeps up with motorsports news and notes from around the region.