LUCAS: A HOOSIER AT HEART
Association's
Mac Tools U.S. Nationals approaches, it couldn't be a more appropriate
theme song for Top Fuel drag racer Morgan Lucas.The Corydon, Ind.-born and Southern California-reared Lucas called the Hoosier State "God's country." And, like his adopted hometown Indianapolis, he is maturing, even shining, as a big-league player.
Indianapolis, one of America's top dozen cities in population, has taken the sports spotlight. Its National Football League Colts won the 2007 Super Bowl, and their home field -- Lucas Oil Stadium -- will host the 2012 Super Bowl. The basketball-crazy city -- and the downtown stadium for which his parents' company owns the 20-year, $122-million naming rights -- also will host the NCAA Final Four tournament in April 2010. It's a heady time for the Motorsports Capital of the World.
The song "Back Home Again In Indiana" is associated with actor Jim Nabors and the Indianapolis 500. But as the National Hot Rod 
Association's Mac Tools U.S. Nationals approaches, it couldn't be a more appropriate theme song for Top Fuel drag racer Morgan Lucas.
The Corydon, Ind.-born and Southern California-reared Lucas called the Hoosier State "God's country." And, like his adopted hometown Indianapolis, he is maturing, even shining, as a big-league player.
Indianapolis, one of America's top dozen cities in population, has taken the sports spotlight. Its National Football League Colts won the 2007 Super Bowl, and their home field -- Lucas Oil Stadium -- will host the 2012 Super Bowl. The basketball-crazy city -- and the downtown stadium for which his parents' company owns the 20-year, $122-million naming rights -- also will host the NCAA Final Four tournament in April 2010. It's a heady time for the Motorsports Capital of the World.
Likewise, it's a marvelous time to be Morgan Lucas. The 25-year-old driver/team manager has victories at Atlanta and Brainerd, Minn., the first two of his career, in a season that includes a berth in the 10-driver Countdown to the Championship. Moreover, his teammate, his hired driver, Shawn Langdon, has a legitimate shot at the AAA of Southern California Road to the Future Award for the NHRA's top rookie.
Lucas said he embraces Indianapolis. But maybe more than he knows, it is an inseparable part of him. He's perfectly fine with either description.
"I was born in Indiana, but I grew up in Southern California," Lucas said. "So I feel like a hybrid.
"I definitely spent a lot of time growing up in Indiana. My brothers and sisters are there, my aunts and uncles. It's one of those deals where everybody's got comfort food, everybody's got a comfortable place. Indiana has always been my comfort zone," he said. "I've always been a Colts fan, and now that I live in Indianapolis, I've got everything I want -- I've got my family, I've got my football team, I've got an amazing city. It's honestly second to none, in my opinion, because you get not only all the qualities of a massive city but you get in a clean, small setting."
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He said popular Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who is just past the one-year "honeymoon period" with voters, "has done a really good job. He's looking at trying to keep everything afloat. We don't want to turn out to be another California and have any liberal issues. I feel like I'm in God's country, you know what I mean?"
One undeniable truth about Indianapolis is its position in the nation's Bible Belt. Lucas, with parents Forrest and Charlotte and former Colts coach Tony Dungy as his inspirations, indicated he's proud to be right there.
"I feel really blessed to have the opportunities I have in my life and to have met a lot of the people I've met in Indy," the No. 7-ranked Top Fuel driver said. "It has turned into my home.
"Every home has good, bad things -- things you don't love about it, things you do love about it. I can't find a lot of things I don't like about Indianapolis," he said. "I feel like my family has done a lot of things for the city and the state. I feel like being a part of that is just a big deal for me. It's probably the next step in my life towards having a career in the oil business."
Lucas is learning that success comes with a social conscience.
"I think that my family has given me a lot of opportunity. The biggest thing is letting us have our own shop in Indianapolis. We are the Indianapolis office. That's cool" he said, referring to his shop in the Larry Dixon-owned building in Brownsburg, Ind.'s so-called "Nitro Alley" enclave.
"My dad really gives us a lot of opportunities, and Indianapolis has given us a lot of opportunities, too. That's why we're having a charity golf tournament this year the Thursday before the Indianapolis race, at Eagle Creek Park. You get food and prizes and the whole deal. We just want to show everybody a good time. It's a benefit for St. Vincent Children's Hospital," he said.
Rapidly expanding St. Vincent, he said, "is a great hospital. What we're trying to do is help people become a little more aware of that on the grassroots level in drag racing, to say, 'Hey, there's a hospital here that does amazing, amazing things.' Their big move is now is breast cancer. They're trying to generate some money for things like trying to build these satellite offices across the state in rural areas so women can come in and get pap smears and mammograms and get all their stuff done. [Some women] don't want to drive an hour and a half to two hours (to a health-care facility)."
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The golf outing, the first annual Eric Medlen Classic, is named for one of his closest pals, the Funny Car driver who died in March 2007 from injuries sustained in a testing accident. "We're doing it in Eric's name, because Eric loved kids. We want to keep people thinking about Eric and keep people thinking about the kids. Those are our priorities."
On a personal level, Lucas has a priority that goes beyond winning drag races and preparing to become an oil-company magnate. He wants to be a better Christian.
"I'm a firm believer in God. As long as you have God in your heart and your life, you can do great things and you can get past anything," Lucas said. "I've never always been the most active Christian, by any means, but I'll be honest with you. I'm really working at becoming more of one."
He said Dungy's latest book, "Uncommon," has helped him with his Christian walk.
"That book," he said, "has inspired me to become a better man all the way around. It's a slow process. It's not an overnight change. Drag racing is an amazing, fun thing to do. It's a great career. It's a place where you can raise a family and have a family involved in your career. But next to all the opportunities and blessings I've got, drag racing has given me so much, but I wouldn't have drag racing if it wasn't for my opportunities from God and my family. I definitely believe that being more involved with God in the last couple of years has really helped my mindset of what I'm doing in my job.
"I'm not always the best Christian, but who is?" he said. "God challenges all of us on a daily basis. When you read Tony's book, he has a line in it that says, 'It's God's will.' I really think about something like that. There's a lot of people out there who like to make excuses, tell stories just to justify their wrongdoings or justify a mistake. Just take responsibility for your decisions. What's going to happen in your life is what's going to happen."
He is a Dungy disciple. "Tony Dungy is an amazing -- a-MAZ-ing -- human being, probably the best human being who walked the face of the earth as of right now," Lucas said. "I would say honestly he's doing more for my generation and generations to come. He's doing amazing work . . . right now, writing these books, trying to be a leader for a whole generation.
"When you read his book, he's just trying to help people in general bit men in detail to be better men, to respect women, to respect other people, to cherish what they've got and not constantly be worried about what they don't have and try to take advantage of what's going on and to keep the best people around you because you are who your friends are," Lucas said.
"The biggest thing I'm blessed with is amazing parents," he said. "That's the reason I've had the opportunities I've had and the reason I'm happy to be where I'm at. My mom and dad have really given me so much."
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Then in a bit of a confession, he said, "In return, what I've had for them is ignorance -- every kid goes through a phase where he thinks he knows better growing up. I'm 25, and for the past couple of years, every year they get a lot smarter and a lot smarter." He laughed at his own immaturity, the shtick he's trying to kick. But turning serious, he said, "A lot of kids out there, I think if I could ever tell them anything: Care about your parents. Listen to what they say, even if you don't want to agree with it, because parents aren't the dumbest people in the world and they have experienced a lot more things than you have."
Eloquence will come, but the heart is there. Lucas is loyal to his parents, in love with his new hometown, and true to his principles, including his political credo.
"That's another reason I'm proud to live in Indiana, because there are a lot of Republicans -- a lot of people who just have common sense," he said. "Common sense isn't so common."
Said Lucas, "A lot of these Democrats out there don't realize that you get money by saving money. You don't get it by spending it. That's how my dad looks at it. Joe Amato's another good example. You have to act like the tightest tightwad in the world sometimes to keep yourself grounded and humble. Every once in awhile you spend your money. You worked hard to get it."
Yes, he acknowledged, his parents have a jet. But, he said, his father "could have a nicer jet. It's fine. It works. As long as something works for what he needs, that's all he needs. 'Practical' is something I think this country has lost a lot of.
"All these people who voted and turned this country into such a liberal country, all these movie stars -- I would like to be the first person in the entertainment business to speak up for Republicans, because I completely support everything -- not that, let's say, Rush Limbaugh says, but everything Newt Gingrich says. I'll support everything these guys are out there talking about, because they have the best interests of the country."
For example, the controversial health-care bill that's at Congress' doorstep. "Worst thing that ever happened," Lucas said. "If you want your grandkids to pay for it, then go ahead and support it. I feel like our country has made a few steps in the wrong direction and Bush left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. That's because he didn't address the problem that the Democrats left for him. That's the reason we got into Iraq. There might have been a big distraction for him -- I don't know . . . let's say 9/11. The guy had to pretty much do that. He probably was chasing his tail for the rest of his presidency.
"The country really needs to do some evaluating about what's most important, not what some movie star thinks about how they should vote," he said. "The reason our economy is struggling, our stock market, and everything else are struggling is because the people with money are afraid to spend it right now. I also feel like these Democrats are trying to eliminate the private sector. I feel like it's something they're so against. Maybe they're not, but they're not making it easy for all these companies to stay afloat."
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Becoming more business-minded is a huge and sometimes difficult task for Lucas, but it's a challenge he is welcoming.
"I think my dad is watching me. I think he's wanting to see what I'm doing and how I'm doing, what's going on," Lucas said. "Dad's a really sharp guy. And he makes decisions not necessarily based off emotion all the time but based off what's right and wrong. That's something I'm learning how to do.
"With the race-car team," he said, "sometimes you have to deal with sucking it up and telling somebody they've got to do something different, even if it's not what they want. It's not a good position to be in, but I'm getting more involved in everything in my life. But the thing is you get pulled in a lot of directions. So you have to count on a lot of people to uphold their end of what they're supposed to do. You have to rely on people. My dad's done a really good job of placing people he can trust around him. Everybody's got a really special place in our family, just because they do so much for us to keep our business going. We try to give back to them. The business is the next big jump in my life."
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has offered Lucas Oil some sweet incentives to move his Lucas Oil headquarters to Indiana from Corona, Calif.. Forrest Lucas hasn't made a decision, but his youngest son said, "It's something we've talked about, but if we do anything there it wouldn't be our headquarters. We'd have our office in California. But we'd probably put our international headquarters right there in Indianapolis. That's something we've talked about. But some things we're still working out with the stadium. Maybe someday in the future that will happen.
"That means," he said happily, "I won't have to move anywhere. I love Indianapolis. I love the people in it -- all the sprint car racers, all the IndyCar racers, all my buddies at Pit Fit (the gym where he trains, alongside Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti). Those IndyCar racers are just outstanding, outstanding people.
"That just goes to show you," Lucas said, "that Indy is a racing city and it's a lot of fun to be around. NASCAR can have Charlotte all they want. I love that city down there, too, but it's not home."
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