Some people are born into their family’s restaurant business. Some are born into their family’s accounting firm. And some, like Morgan Lucas, are born into something a little more high-octane.
Lucas is the son of Forrest and Charlotte Lucas, the founders of Lucas Oil. For more than 35 years, the company has been an innovator in engine oils, additives and lubricants, creating products used by everyone from NASCAR drivers to people taking their SUVs to the grocery store.
This past February, Morgan Lucas became the CEO of the family’s business. But before getting in the corporate driver’s seat, he traveled on a different path — going very, very fast.
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From 2004 to 2016, Lucas was a professional drag racer in the National Hot Rod Association. During that time, he earned 12 wins in the Top Fuel class and 11 in the Top Alcohol Dragster class. He retired in 2016 to take on a full-time role as vice president of sales at Lucas Oil and worked his way up to CEO, where he now oversees the company’s strategic direction and vision.
Entrepreneur spoke with Lucas about the lessons he learned going 330 mph — how risk-taking, trusting your team and speeding ahead full-throttle on the drag strip apply to leading a business with over 300 products sold in 48 countries.
You just took over as CEO of a company that has been in business for 35 years. What do you think has helped it stand out all these years?
Well, most people think of any company with the word “oil” in the name as being associated with Big Oil. But we are a family business that operates on its own terms. We are more focused on the longevity of vehicles and fixing problems than a lot of companies, and that drives us in different directions and helps us stay creative. We’ve used motorsports as an opportunity to develop products. From teams like Richard Childress Racing to even my own usage back when I was driving, we’ve been able to transfer that technology over to the general automotive and heavy-duty spaces.
For those who have never sat in a car with an 11,000-horsepower engine, can you describe what that’s like?
I fell in love with motorsports at a young age. I was always fascinated by the mechanical aspects of how engines work, the sounds that they make, acceleration rates, the explosiveness. The first time I got behind the wheel of a nitro car, I realized that this was different the second I hit the gas for my first burnout. It was loud and violent. And as a 19-year-old kid, that’s a very exciting thing to have in your life. But as I grew older, I began to understand the difference between getting in a situation that was out of control versus being in control.
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How did your racing career affect your leadership style in business?
As a driver, if you trust the people putting your car together, that gives you the confidence to know that you can go out there and do your job. There are other drivers I’ve talked to who didn’t have that same trust or faith, which affected how they drove. If you’re driving a race car, you can’t be scared. That distraction will keep you from performing at the level you need to be at. I draw from those experiences. We’re building a team that can help bridge the gap between failures and successes. We’ve invested heavily in our product development team, hiring the appropriate chemists and researchers to help us understand where we’ve been and where we need to go.
Credit: Lucas Oil
What’s your best advice for hiring?
Whether it’s an executive team or drag racing, you can’t be afraid to hire somebody smarter than you. And you can’t be afraid to depend on those people. We have amazing executives who bring a lot to the table. I’m lucky to be able to work alongside my wife, Katie. She spent time with the Indianapolis Colts on the sales team and worked in many competitive fields, and she draws from those experiences to connect the dots in her role as president at Lucas Oil.
You mentioned success and failure. As a former racer, how do you look at losses?
There’s a fun and cliched saying: “Embrace the suck.” Failure is part of life. We don’t grow if we’re not trying. And you’re going to fail sometimes when you try something new. I’ve failed in media interviews because I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. And that’s okay. I built a foundational memory from that and prepared better moving forward. Leaders who hedge too much or are overly concerned with failure are not the right people to drive a company forward. You have to be willing to take risks, or you’ll go backward.
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As you move forward, is there a leadership lesson that your father taught you that has been particularly impactful?
He always says that it doesn’t cost anything to smile. Kindness is something we should offer everyone on our teams. It affords us the opportunity to maintain a solid working relationship with them and hold them accountable. He also says that common sense is something that is lost on so many people in this world. My father was a well-read man and self-taught in so many ways, and he would use his common sense in life and bridge it into good decision-making in business. You can look at the numbers, research, and intelligence you pay your team to create and utilize. But your gut instincts will always be there, too. Don’t be afraid to listen to your gut and apply common sense to what you’re doing.
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