TOP FUEL

Morgan Lucas roared up four spots in the Top Fuel standings with his second victory of the season, this one coming in the first race of the Countdown to the Championship. But though he's 30 points out of the lead, Lucas isn't ready to worry about the championship.

"The points don't matter until the end of the year," Lucas said. "We've never been in this situation, chasing a championship. We just want to run well. We want to know that we're doing the best that we can do. The team did a great job today, put a great car underneath me, and they carried me. We are a team, and I'm really genuinely proud to be a part of it.

Lucas was driving a new car engineered by crew chief Aaron Brooks and built by Brooks, assistant crew chief Rod Centorbi, and clutch specialist Richie Crampton in the Morgan Lucas Racing shop in Brownsburg, Ind. The car is the first out of the MLR shop and was completed just before Indy and tested early last week.

"We wanted something a little bit better," Lucas said. "We wanted something that we knew we could build pre-load into the car, that we could make a little more forgiving, lighter, just little things. Aaron is our crew chief, but he's an artist when it comes to working with metal. We've got a couple of other guys in the shop who are the same way.