Nearly two decades after calling out drag racing officials with his now-famous phrase borrowed from comedian Ron White, “You can’t fix stupid,” Larry Morgan returned to Darana Raceway and won the IHRA’s new 500-inch Pro Stock title. Morgan beat Derrick Reese in Sunday’s final, marking his first competitive appearance at the track since 2006.
Morgan, driving Mark Beaver’s Beaver Motorsports Camaro, was back on the same property where his blunt criticism of NHRA’s timing problems during the final Springnationals made headlines. At the time, his comment went unpunished, but printing it on a T-shirt with the NHRA logo drew ire.
Now on the other side of the fence as an IHRA series official, Morgan has spent months helping rebuild the sanctioning body’s reputation with racers, media and sponsors. He called winning as both a competitor and contributor “the greatest feeling in the world.”
“Oh, it’s the greatest feeling in the world,” Morgan said. “I mean, Doug Foley Jr. and myself have worked extremely hard at trying to get this where it’s moving in the right direction, and now with a lot of people’s help, we’ve turned it into something.”
Morgan said the work behind the scenes was harder than expected but satisfying to see unfold at Darana Raceway in Hebron, formerly National Trail Raceway. “We’ve worked extremely hard for the last five months,” he said. “So it’s really paying off, I believe, for us.”
He admitted there were missteps along the way but said adjustments led to better results. “We’ve had a couple snafus with the way things, we were going to do it,” Morgan said. “But it really turned out for the better because I think we’ve gotten in a position where we’re going to be okay, I believe.”
Despite his visible role in the IHRA’s resurgence, Morgan insisted he holds no formal title and prefers it that way. “I don’t have a title,” he said. “I wouldn’t take a title because titles, people get fired with titles.”
Morgan said he works at the request of IHRA owner Darryl Cuttell and considers his efforts a way to give back to the sport. “Darryl asked me to help him, and that’s what I’m doing,” Morgan said. “I don’t need a title. I don’t want a title. I just want to help out.”
He added that the opportunity to shape the series’ future motivates him more than any recognition. “Every bit of it, what I’ve got to give, I want to give because I think this could be one of the greatest things in drag racing,” Morgan said.
Asked if he’s developed a new appreciation for what race officials endure, Morgan didn’t hesitate. “Are you kidding me? It’s the toughest thing you could ever do,” he said. “There’s so many things that you don’t even know about that has to be done.”
He described the work as a daily learning process, but said progress has been steady. “We learned day by day what we have to do,” Morgan said. “But in short, we’re there. I mean, we’re getting there. We’re doing fine.”
Morgan expects the next event in Milan, Michigan, to benefit from the lessons learned in Hebron. “This will be a good race the next time we come here,” he said. “It’s not a bad race now because we got people here. I think the next race will be very good at Milan.”
He noted that even small gestures by IHRA leadership helped establish goodwill with teams. “Darryl is a man of his word,” Morgan said. “To be honest with you, he gave everybody here a bag of ice, everybody here, the first day it was 90 degrees.”
That hospitality extended beyond just cold drinks, Morgan added. “Took a big ass bag of ice and gave to every guy,” he said. “And then he fed them here for two days.”
Morgan confirmed every team on the property received the same treatment. “Every team, everybody,” he said.
Reflecting on his past clashes with racing officials, Morgan stood by his outspoken nature. “Well, no. If it needed talked about, I made sure it got talked about,” he said. “I’ve been put in some bad positions, and it didn’t turn out well for myself and for the sanctioning body.”
He said the current IHRA philosophy emphasizes avoiding those kinds of conflicts by listening to racers. “But it was heard, well heard,” Morgan said of his earlier criticisms. “And that’s one of the things we’re trying to get cleared up here, where that doesn’t happen, that people aren’t put in that position.”
Morgan said Cuttell’s commitment to the racers has been central to the turnaround. “I think it’s going to turn out very good,” he said. “Darryl is really into it and that’s what it takes.”
Asked if the “You can’t fix stupid” shirts were a celebration of that defiance, Morgan demurred. “No, not really,” he said. “I mean the, ‘Can’t fix stupid,’ shirt, there was a reason for it, and that got cleared up.”
He added that he sees those past conflicts as learning experiences.
“It seems like you learn from mistakes and that’s all I’m going to say,” Morgan said. “Everybody learns from mistakes. But I’m really looking forward to this for the long-term.”
SIDEBAR – READ THE STORY THAT GOT LARRY MORGAN IN THE DOGHOUSE
