Lucas and his 'Hard Working Crew' prepare for assault on Firebird

Fresh off a semifinal finish in the GEICO/Lucas Oil dragster at professional drag racing's season opener and riding high in third place in the Full Throttle Series Top Fuel standings, Morgan Lucas is looking for more success at this weekend's 28th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway.

"I've got a lot of family and friends out in Phoenix," Lucas said. "It's a cool place to visit and a cool place to race. I can’t tell you how excited I am to get back out there and run this GEICO dragster, especially after the way it ran this past weekend."

The team took bold steps forward during the offseason, and the changes are already being noticed by others in the sport. Lucas' crew, who helped their man to the No. 1 qualifying position in Pomona, were presented with the Full Throttle Hard Working Crew Award for their efforts.

"We made some good decisions with personnel during the winter and thanks to a lot of input from a lot of good people we're off to a good start," Lucas said. "They guys came into Pomona excited about racing and it showed in the way we performed. That's what it’s all about for us right now – keeping that momentum up and the positivity going.

"I don’t know too many teams that only make it to the semis and still win the Hard Working Crew Award. It's a testament on how well we ran in qualifying and how big of a turnaround the car has made."

Before heading to Phoenix, Lucas took team sponsor Toyota up on an offer to go to a road course and test drive some high performance Lexus vehicles, including the Lexus LFA supercar.

"Toyota really raised the bar for us this week by letting us go out there and run those cars," Lucas said. "It also was a great opportunity to hang out with some of my friends from the racetrack and do something totally different than we ever get to do.

"It was really exciting and I'm fortunate to have had the opportunity. It kept me geared up for the race weekend ahead of us."

Qualifying for the NHRA Arizona Nationals get under way at 1:30 p.m. MST on Friday at Firebird International Speedway with two sessions. Qualifying picks back up on Saturday with another two sessions starting at noon. Eliminations begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday. ESPN2 will air the qualifying show at 6 p.m. and the eliminations show at 7 p.m. Sunday.