Lucas Oil’s Richie Crampton will head home to newborn daughter Emma with a smile on his face after a solid weekend in his GEICO/Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster during the NHRA Kansas Nationals in Topeka, Kansas.
Crampton, whose daughter was born last Tuesday, made three consecutive 3.8-second passes, winning in the first round Sunday for his second round-win of the season.
He made another good run in the second round but couldn't get past J.R. Todd.
"It's great to get my second first-round win of the year," Crampton said. "And not only that, but we ran good on our final qualifying session and made two good runs today in eliminations.
"Even though it wasn't good enough to beat J.R. in the second round, it's still good that we have a race car that's running low 3.80s again. It gives us all something to work on. It gives me a little more confidence in my driving as well. I'm pretty happy with how things panned out."
Crampton qualified tenth with a pass of 3.804 seconds at 322.88 mph in the final session, and then made a run of 3.832 seconds at 318.24 mph to defeat Bob Vandergriff Jr in the first round.
That round-win allowed him to hold on to 10th place in the Top Fuel points standings, as he and Vandergriff -- whose run was 4.368 at 210.60 mph -- were within a round of each other coming into the weekend.
In the second round against Todd, Crampton's pass was 3.828 at 317.64 mph, but Todd inched out the win with a run of 3.808 at 316.30 mph.
"Obviously, we would've liked to have gone a little farther and gotten around J.R. for the ninth spot in the points, but we'll get 'em in Englishtown."
Crampton will carry some momentum into Englishtown, for crew chief Aaron Brooks adapted to changing conditions in Topeka, including the warmest day of the weekend Sunday.
Plus, the round-win helped lift the spirits of the Morgan Lucas Racing team.
"This group of guys works so hard day in and day out," Crampton said. "To have not shown the potential of this year so far has been kind of tough on everyone, but they've still been in good spirits; nothing gets them down. I'm just so thankful for this awesome team. Aaron Brooks and everyone here is doing a great job. I'm looking forward to getting back on track and winning some more rounds."
