BRISTOL, Tenn. (June 10) - Lucas Oil Ford Pro Stock driver Larry Morgan has his sights set on a good performance at the Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals this weekend at Bristol Dragway after a minor eye procedure on Monday.
Morgan was taking it easy Monday afternoon, which is unusual for the hard-working driver. Doctors cleaned under the lens of his left eye to help clear his vision.
"I've had an issue with my eye," Morgan said. "There's something that keeps messing it up and they keep trying to clean it. They lift your lens up and scrape underneath it."
Morgan was wearing an eye patch over his left eye, but the patch will come off Tuesday, he said. While in some pain, Morgan kept his sense of humor.
"It's terrible pain and I was told to lay down for four hours, so that's what I'm doing," Morgan said. "I'll be good. I'll be all right, I hope. If I'm not, we'll get somebody else to blame."
Morgan and his small team have battled electrical issues for the past couple of races, losing the ability to record data for his runs. Having that information is crucial to making the proper changes to the car's tune-up, and without it Morgan was having to guess at what to do.
But after a loss in Englishtown, N.J., Morgan replaced all the wiring in his Mustang.
"All the wiring is done and we're working on finishing up the second motor," Morgan said. "Hopefully, we'll go test Wednesday to make sure everything is OK."
Bristol Dragway can often be difficult to make a good run on because of a bump in the track, but it still remains near the top of the list of Morgan's favorite tracks, mostly because it's owned by Speedway Motorsports' Bruton Smith.
"It's tricky," Morgan said. "They've got a tunnel that runs underneath of it, and our cars don't like going over that. That's the only trouble with it. I like Bristol and I like all of Bruton's tracks because he sure attracts a lot of people."
Four rounds of Pro Stock qualifying will feature sessions at 5 and 7:30 p.m., Friday, and 12:30 and 3 p.m., Saturday. Eliminations are slated to start at 1 p.m., Sunday. Both qualifying and elimination action will be broadcast on ESPN2.
