Morgan Lucas ended in spectacular fashion Sunday when his GEICO/Lucas Oil dragster erupted in a massive fireball during a second-round race against Shawn Langdon.

Crew chief Aaron Brooks said the car broke a lifter early in the run, which started a chain reaction of parts failures that ultimately led to a buildup of back-pressure on the hoses running to the car's puke tank. That pressure popped the hoses off the tank, spraying oil onto the car's red-hot headers, causing 20-foot tall flames to spray from the rear of the rail.

"I knew something was up almost from the moment I hit the gas," Lucas said. "The problem is, on race day you have to stick with it until you know you are beat.

"Shawn just motored away and once I knew there was no way to catch him, that's when I clicked it off. Thank God I did. A few more seconds of that fire and it could have gotten on the rear wing or something and who knows what could have happened."

Langdon crossed the line in 3.791 seconds at 318.39 mph, while Lucas coasted across in 4.508 seconds at 174.32 mph.

"All in all it wasn't a bad weekend," Lucas said. "It's just frustrating that freak things are slowing us down. Last week it was the rear end and this weekend it was a lifter.

"We're just having a touch of bad luck. The guys are doing a great job of putting the car together. It's just how it's happening right now."

In the first round Steve Torrence ran 3.801/322.04 to defeat Brandon Bernstein’s 3.794/319.75. Clay Millican eliminated Torrence in the next round.