Richard Hogan had a lot on his mind Thursday evening when he was contacted by Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com to discuss his dismissal from Morgan Lucas Racing. His concerns weren’t centered on himself and his future. They were about his crew members, who he said, moved to work with him.

Hogan said they are now left without their crew chief.

“They decided to fire me and that’s always an owner’s decision,” Hogan said. “What I really had a problem with is the crew guys that I had are still there that have been with me for two to three years. They relocated from different areas of the country to come race on the team with me. They moved their families and left Schumacher’s with me also.

“We moved under the faith that we’d have a good program with Lucas. They fired me and never thought anything about them.” Veteran tuner fired from Morgan Lucas Racing on Thursday

Richard Hogan had a lot on his mind Thursday evening when he was contacted by Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com to discuss his dismissal from Morgan Lucas Racing. His concerns weren’t centered on himself and his future. They were about his crew members, who he said, moved to work with him.

Hogan said they are now left without their crew chief.

“They decided to fire me and that’s always an owner’s decision,” Hogan said. “What I really had a problem with is the crew guys that I had are still there that have been with me for two to three years. They relocated from different areas of the country to come race on the team with me. They moved their families and left Schumacher’s with me also.

“We moved under the faith that we’d have a good program with Lucas. They fired me and never thought anything about them.”

Hogan joined Morgan Lucas Racing in 2007 when he and the crew left Don Schumacher Racing to field the Melanie Troxel dragster. Midway through the season, Hogan and the crew were reassigned to the Lucas dragster.

 

They decided to fire me and that’s always an owner’s decision. What I really had a problem with is the crew guys that I had are still there that have been with me for two to three years. They relocated from different areas of the country to come race on the team with me. They moved their families and left Schumacher’s with me also. We moved under the faith that we’d have a good program with Lucas. They fired me and never thought anything about them. – Richard Hogan

“There was no discussion about what was going on with me or anything,” Lucas said. “Now they are without a crew chief and they’ve got to stay with that program to keep their jobs.

“It’s basically one of those deals where the owners just change things thinking they are fixing them. They’re just not addressing the issues properly.”

Hogan felt the decision was largely based on his reluctance to assist on the second car driven by J.R. Todd.

“They felt I should have given more input than I did on the other car, but I had already given all I possibly could,” Hogan added. “I was only hired to run one car. When you start expecting me to go beyond that – and the discussion was brought up in Phoenix – that I was hired to only run one car. I wanted to have the best running car and that didn’t set too well.”

The veteran crew chief felt the crew deserved better considering the adjustments they made during last season.

“We came to the Lucas team and had a good running car with Melanie,” said Hogan. “I realized that if we didn’t do something different midway through the season that [team owner] Forrest Lucas was going to park everything.

“I told the crew we were going to take the beating, we were going to lose points and be out of the shootout. I sold them on the plan that if we got Morgan’s car straightened out that things were going to work out. Evidently that didn’t make anyone happy.

“Giving up your points and your shootout points to rescue someone and then to get to this point and get crapped on – I just don’t know. You tell me.”

With the demand exceeding the supply of high quality crew chiefs, one might think Hogan’s phone was already ringing by the afternoon. Not so, said Hogan, and with good reason.

“I had my phone off all day,” Hogan said. “I’m not really interested in me. My crew guys are my first priority and I want to keep them all together. I worked years to get a crew put together like I’ve had. They are a dedicated group of guys who have bent over backwards.

“And all I get is a phone call from Morgan that says, ‘My dad is pissed – you’re done.”

Hogan confirmed that Brian “Speedy” Shipman, his second in charge, resigned his position on Thursday. He declined to fill Hogan’s vacancy.

“He refused to do it because he said it was improper,” Hogan confided.

The biggest gripe, Hogan alluded, is the crewmen are undervalued.

“This all revolves around people with too much money that don’t understand what is going on,” Hogan said. “They don’t understand how hard it is to get to where we are at and things weren’t that bad. It was just a personal disagreement that centered around me telling Forrest and Jon “Stewie” Stewart that I was only running one car. 

“They had four crew chiefs last year. I brought as much knowledge, engine and clutch combination as I could bring from working with Alan Johnson without pissing him off and that’s forgotten because you say something they don’t like?”

Calls were made to Morgan Lucas Racing but were not returned Thursday.