NORWALK, Ohio (July 6) - Larry Morgan and his Lucas Oil Pro Stock Ford team continue to make progress despite a first-round loss in his home-state race.
Morgan, from Newark, Ohio, made a pass quicker than his qualifying lap, but it wasn't enough to overcome No. 3 qualifier Allen Johnson in the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals on Sunday at Summit Motorsports Park.
As Morgan remained persistent in improving his Mustang this weekend, he made a run of 6.671 seconds at 209.30 mph against Johnson, but the 2012 Pro Stock champion was quicker at 6.589 seconds at 210.73 mph to advance to the second round.
"I'm happy with that," Morgan said. "I'm not happy about getting beat, believe me. We're here to win, no doubt, and it stings when you don't win, but we've been around long enough to know you can't win them all, especially with the way things are now.
"But we need to make progress, and I think we are. We'll keep working to make it better, too."
Morgan's progress was helped by the entry of Travis Mazza this weekend. Mazza, who builds Morgan's race cars, drove in Norwalk with a Larry Morgan Racing engine and the two teams shared information.
Morgan and his team could also experiment with Mazza's tune-up, yielding valuable information.
"It's harder to run two cars since we're such a small team but it's better," Morgan said. "We learned a lot with Travis here, and we hope he comes back soon. It was nice to have that extra computer working. We could trade ideas back and forth and that's important for us."
Newark, Ohio, is two hours south of Summit Motorsports Park, so Morgan had plenty of friends and family at the track for support.
"I love racing in Ohio, but I wish we could have done better for them and for Lucas Oil Streamlight and all the people who support us," Morgan said. "We'll be all right."
