Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Departed driver on Lucas’ mind in Columbus

Thursday, May 19, 2005 | 10:05 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Morgan Lucas has been itching to win a Top Fuel race since he took over for the late Darrell Russell at Joe Amato Racing last August.

This weekend, he will have even more incentive as the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series heads to National Trail Raceway near Columbus, Ohio -- the site of Russell's final victory.

"Darrell Russell's last win was in Columbus and we definitely want to defend his title," Lucas said. "It's huge for us to run well in his honor. It would nice to double up and make it back-to-back wins in Columbus for Amato Racing."

Russell earned his sixth career Top Fuel victory last June -- on Amato's birthday -- but was killed in a racing accident two weeks later at Gateway International Raceway. Lucas, 21, was hired by Amato last July and made his debut in the Lucas Oil dragster in August at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway.

Lucas is fourth in points going into this weekend's Pontiac Performance NHRA Nationals and is coming off his first career No. 1 qualifying effort at Atlanta Dragway. This weekend's event will mark Lucas' first race at National Trail Raceway.

"I just want to come to Columbus and do the best job I can and it wouldn't be bad to have another low qualifier spot and win this deal," Lucas said. "We ran our car on a 130-degree track at Atlanta on Monday in testing; it went straight down the track, smooth as glass and we figured out what made the difference in its handling.

"The style of car I'm driving now is a copy of the one (the team) won the race with last year. I think this is our time to shine right now."

ON A ROLL: NHRA Top Fuel points leader Doug Kalitta will be looking to extend his two-race winning streak and his 60-point lead over Tony Schumacher at this weekend's Pontiac Performance NHRA Nationals.

Kalitta, who has won three of the seven Top Fuel events this season, has advanced to the final round at four of the past five races in his Mac Tools dragster.

"We're on quite a hot streak right now," Kalitta said. "We need to keep building on this momentum. Keeping the points lead is the main goal now.

"Getting by Tony (Schumacher) in the semis in Atlanta was huge. Winning the race was big, but beating the guy that's right behind you in points is what we have to keep doing to win the championship. Hopefully, we can keep going rounds in Columbus and keep all of our competitors farther behind us."

FINALLY: Greg Anderson, who won 27 races and a pair of NHRA Pro Stock championships the past two years, earned his first victory of the 2005 season Sunday in Atlanta.

Anderson, who drives for team owner Ken Black of Las Vegas, isn't ready to proclaim his team has turned the corner based on one victory (teammate Jason Line also has a win this season).

"I guess, yeah, we have to consider we're in a slump," Anderson said. "You hate to say it, but everybody else is thinking it, too, I guess, and so are we. So far, we haven't produced up to our standards.

"We're not going to be satisfied with third or fourth in points. We just set the standard so high for ourselves that we just don't want to go down from that. The more you win, the more you want to win (and) we won't be happy until we get back to doing it consistently."

Anderson, who led the Pro Stock points standings for the entire 2004 season, is third after seven races this season and trials Warren Johnson by 134 points.

AT THE STRIP: Chris Naffziger (Super Pro), Michael Jackson (Pro), Kyle Hirschi (Street), Leo Shaver (Motorcycle) and Billy Fraker (Sport Compact) were winners in Saturday's Jerry's Nugget Championship Drag Racing Series points event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In the Meadow Gold NHRA Junior Dragster Series, Frank Randell won the Thunder Division and Jett Dwyer captured the Lightning Division.

The Jerry's Nugget Championship Drag Racing Series and Junior Dragster Series will hold their sixth points races of the season Saturday at The Strip.