The driver of the Lucas Oil Dodge qualified for the first-ever Countdown, and also made the Indy show in the seventh position – quite a feat considering the conditions and the caliber of the competition.  The Ohio engine builder’s Hemis are in high demand, although his own was the only to qualify for today’s eliminations.
 
With so much pressure on the Countdown competitors, Morgan may be the exception when he says about that supposed pressure, “No, I’m not feeling any at all.  We came here and we’re going to do the best we can do.  I’ve been doing this for a long time and if you put pressure on yourself you’re going to make a mistake.  I just hope we don’t make any mistakes.
 
“We’re here to win every race, and we surely would like to do something in the championship.  I think it’s great at this point. I just wish they had 10 cars in it.  I think it would be more fair to have 10 cars in it.  I know that they kinda got the concept fro NASCAR, and they started with 10 and now they’re at 12, I believe.

So, maybe since NHRA are followers, maybe they can follow that plan.
The driver of the Lucas Oil Dodge qualified for the first-ever Countdown, and also made the Indy show in the seventh position – quite a feat considering the conditions and the caliber of the competition.  The Ohio engine builder’s Hemis are in high demand, although his own was the only to qualify for today’s eliminations.
 
With so much pressure on the Countdown competitors, Morgan may be the exception when he says about that supposed pressure, “No, I’m not feeling any at all.  We came here and we’re going to do the best we can do.  I’ve been doing this for a long time and if you put pressure on yourself you’re going to make a mistake.  I just hope we don’t make any mistakes.
 
“We’re here to win every race, and we surely would like to do something in the championship.  I think it’s great at this point. I just wish they had 10 cars in it.  I think it would be more fair to have 10 cars in it.  I know that they kinda got the concept fro NASCAR, and they started with 10 and now they’re at 12, I believe.

So, maybe since NHRA are followers, maybe they can follow that plan.
 
“I think we all knew going in that there was going to be no money for ninth and tenth place, but you’re still going to get your (show-up) money from POWERade if you’re in the Top 10, but ninth and tenth place, I don’t think it’s right.  Actually, it’s more important to those guys down there than it is for the guys at the top because they have money.  The guys down at the bottom are struggling to get through, and they can use anything that they can in terms of money.
 
“I think if you finished tenth last year it was a fair amount of money, so those guys are losing that.  I feel bad for them, and if I was one of them I’d feel the same way they do, but you know what?  NHRA needs to look at that and see if they can do something to help those people out.
 
“I can tell you one thing.  There are enough teams out here that have three or four cars on a team, not so much in our class, but if they just take out guys who are in the hunt, it’s practically the same as the diving thing.  I can remember back in 1992, I think, that Dale Earnhardt was trying to win the (NASCAR) championship, and I knew Neil Bonnett real well, and they put him out there just to help.  Not necessarily to wreck cars for Earnhardt, but to keep those cars back.  It’s not uncommon that that stuff happens.
 
“We’re talking about a lot of money here, and people do strange things for money.”