Auto Club Raceway at Pomona was the place that John Force Racing announced a multi-year sponsorship with Lucas Oil Products. The announcement makes Lucas Oil the “Official Oil of John Force Racing” and will have signage on all the John Force Racing Funny Cars and the Top Fuel dragster as well as driver uniforms and race transporters beginning in 2015.
“Forrest and Charlotte Lucas with their son Morgan and Lucas Oil Products are a perfect fit for John Force Racing. This partnership between two strong American families and companies is what makes this sport and country so great. Our two families have grown up together in this sport and we will have a strong future together,” said John Force, CEO of John Force Racing. “I had a great partner for almost 30 years with Castrol and they will always be part of our history but Lucas Oil is our future. I am excited about the opportunity to grow my company and keep racing for many years with the backing of Lucas Oil.”
Force winner of sixteen NHRA Funny Car championships has almost 1,200 round wins and 141 Funny Car race wins to his credit. The entire John Force Racing team has 237 Funny Car victories, the most by any NHRA racing organization in one class.
“John Force is a guy I have admired for many, many years. In my opinion he made Castrol oil in this country. The fact that he became available was shocking to me. I see him partnering with us and it will be a huge economic boost for Lucas Oil around the world. It will be good for John Force Racing because it is more stability and I see this as a win-win situation. It will also be good for NHRA drag racing because it keeps John racing and we don’t have any intentions on leaving so it should be good for everybody. Hopefully all the fans will keep coming back and using Lucas Oil,” said Forrest Lucas, Founder and CEO Lucas Oil Products.
“There are not as many young people coming into NHRA as we would like to see but John has his beautiful daughters involved and they are doing a good job. He has given them good equipment and has good people working with them. Morgan grew up with the girls and they are all good friends. The fact that we are creating the second generation of drag racing leaders and we are not the only ones doing this but we have some of the top rising stars out there,” added Lucas.
Lucas has long been directly involved in the American racing industry through multiple vehicle sponsorships and racing event promotions, at all levels. The Lucas success story has been built upon hard work, an unparalleled line of premium products and an unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction. This single formula for success will continue to guide Lucas Oil Products as it grows in the years to come.
This is the second major sponsorship announcement for John Force Racing. In Las Vegas JFR announced PEAK anti-freeze and Blue Def as a primary sponsor for John Force for the majority of the races in 2015. Today’s announcement is another major step forward to financially strengthening the winningest Funny Car team in NHRA history. In the coming weeks John Force Racing plans a number of additional announcements leading up to the 55th annual NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
Whoa …….
Whoa is right Lucas will be involved with t least 6 fuel cars next year.
For now, Morgan Lucas will run a very limited schedule in 2015, but no solid plans. Morgan also said in his post race interview that they are still looking for sponsorship to replace the loss of GEICO and support Richie Crampton in T/F, as of today – Morgan Lucas Racing is parked for 2015.
Let me add that John Force will announce the team’s new funny car body manufacturer for 2015. He’ll announce that manufacturer at the PRI Show in December, but assured fans that it will be an American manufacturer.
I though what I read was official oil provider and a decal usually considered associate sponsor, not big dollar primary.
What you got to ask yourself is how badly does Mr. Lucas want to win a championship with John Force Racing…? Is he willing to go to his chief rival’s crew chief and lure him away while still in the hunt and then have one of his other cars take a dive in the 2nd round at the season-ending event…? I would think from what I’ve heard Mr. Lucas is a pretty stand up guy. Not sure he is up to the task of ‘win at all costs’ racing we seem to have these days. My days of rooting for DSR are over and if this is how the game is going to be played here (already that way over at the NASCAR farce) I’m likely to not be watching. Matt Hagan can certainly drive a car, but I can see a cloud hanging over this one for a LONG time. I’d not feel good about it. Its sleezy. Legal, but not cool.
And I have to add – about the only thing Jimmy Prock didn’t do for a buck was go over and whiz on the side of JFR’s trailer (or did he). Thanks boss for years of success and I’ll repay you by being a loyal employee and friend by not only talking to your chief rival, but actually accept a position while we’re working for a championship. Class act there. So who will pony up next and feel they can trust him to not leave high and dry. That junk is so wrong.
Body manufacturer? Who cares, can’t tell them apart anyways. Live near Pomona and haven’t been in ten years. At least at Bakersfield the cars are easily identified. Started losing interest in the early 90’s after Glidden and R/H had some cool pro stock wars.
” Much Ado About Nothing ” sums this up in a nutshell !
So … I’ll be blunt here as far as my interest in the NHRA having waned over the years .
My interest began to shrink when the bodies of AA/FA and Pro Stock starting looking more like cartoon characterizations of cars than anything even remotely resembling the car it was supposed to represent
Then with so many rules all aspects of innovation creativity and originality amongst the race cars going the way of the DoDo .
But then came the very worst of it . John Force and his perpetual motion motor mouth ranting on and on about absolutely nothing other than the promotion of the sponsors footing his paycheck with all the media begging for more … even going so far as to interrupt an ongoing race in order to show Motor Mouth [ and family ] blather on
With then everyone else involved following suit to the point of every damn conversation /interview being 99% sponsor promotion and 1% content both live and on TV !
To the point now where for every 60 seconds of actual race coverage [ including staging etc ] you get 10 minutes worth of blathering promotional bs [ and I don’t mean BangShift ]
Hence my interest and ability to even tolerate never mind watch or attend any NHRA coverage having gone down the tubes …
Funny thing though . In light of the very empty grandstands along with the rapidly decreasing Neilsen ratings …. I’m obviously not alone in my opinions … not in the slightest .. 😉
stopped reading here……
“My interest began to shrink when the bodies of AA/FA and Pro Stock starting looking more like cartoon characterizations of cars than anything even remotely resembling the car it was supposed to represent”
AA/FA has always looked like cartoon characterizations of cars.
Now AA/FC did look something like a real car before 1985.
Well Mrs Lucas will be happy with the new deal at least john force is not a minority ask jr todd
Much as I hate to agree, I attribute the downfall of this to one man- Kenny Bernstein. Haven’t cared since he came out with that Tempo. Drag racing needed to be a tad more polished, but jeez. Show some heart. Show some real emotion. If I wanted to watch a commercial, I would. Then Force realized he needed to adopt some of KB’s tactics to play for real, and took the ball and ran with it. He’s said so. I never missed a weekend on Diamond P as a kid, but quit when KB got corporate.
Nascar is declining for the same reason. Who gives a damn cars, and corporate shill drivers. Some of this shit with Keselowski just seems a bit too WWE for me. One long commercial, and I think we can all agree that’s getting out of hand in general. Havent really cared since Sr. died. That’s not to mention the full on Jimmie Johnson nutswinger coverage on tv.
I think it’d be fantastic if Lucas threw their full weight behind Nhra, dependent on a full rewrite of the rules to reflect current sensibilities and tastes. It’ll never happen, but just imagine if Pro Stock became Outlaw 10.5. If Funny cars had to look like their base cars based on a similar percentage like in the 70’s. Knock some speed out of the TF’s and make it at least semi affordable so JFR doesn’t run away with it every weekend. Make every team have to run under a name. Damn, that’d be enough fun I might consider watching again.
Why was there no mention of team orders on Sunday. It’s pretty obvious that team DSR dumped for Hagen.
Do you think that what worked in the past for John Force Racing is good enough for DSR this year? A fact of professional multi car motorsports.