{"id":67826,"date":"2019-12-12T09:27:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T17:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=67826"},"modified":"2019-12-12T09:28:11","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T17:28:11","slug":"leverich-racing-taps-joe-morrison-to-drive-familys-top-fuel-dragster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/leverich-racing-taps-joe-morrison-to-drive-familys-top-fuel-dragster\/","title":{"rendered":"Leverich Racing Taps Joe Morrison to Drive Family\u2019s Top Fuel Dragster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"67828\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/leverich-racing-taps-joe-morrison-to-drive-familys-top-fuel-dragster\/untitled-148\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Untitled-1.png\" data-orig-size=\"620,340\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Untitled\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Untitled-1-300x165.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Untitled-1.png\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-67828\" src=\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Untitled-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Untitled-1.png 620w, https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Untitled-1-300x165.png 300w, https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Untitled-1-376x206.png 376w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Journeyman Nostalgia Drag Racer Joe Morrison is heading to the show. The talented Nostalgia Funny Car and Fuel Altered driver from Flemington, NJ was introduced as the new shoe of the Leverich Family Racing Top Fuel Dragster for the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. The announcement, held at the RacingJunk.com booth #2143 at the PRI Show in Indianapolis, Ind. on Thursday, officially kicks off the start of Morrison\u2019s matriculation to becoming a professional NHRA Drag Racer.<\/p>\n<p>Morrison is a second-generation drag racer, currently licensed in NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster, Nostalgia Funny Car, AA\/Fuel Altered, and Advanced ET. Since 2001, the diverse driver has earned a reputation for his old-school driving style and a flair inspired by drag racing legend Jungle Jim Liberman.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-YiJu9iVlIs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Morrison initially earned his NHRA Competition License on September 11th, 2001 and upgraded his license to NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster, under the instruction of legendary tuner of the stars \u2013 Jerry Darien. In the past three years, he has driven Rocky Pirrone\u2019s Frantic Ford Nitro Funny Car, his Super Camaro Nostalgia Funny Car, and Ted Brine\u2019s wild 1934 Ford Fuel Coupe \u2013 \u201cThe 134.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t thank the Leverich Family enough for the honor they\u2019ve just given me. To drive their Top Fuel Dragster in the NHRA Mello Yello Series next season is a dream come true,\u201d noted Morrison. \u201cThis has been a goal of mine since I was a kid attending the Summernationals at E-Town and racing with my dad in the 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s. When he lost his battle with COPD, I made it my mission to eventually drive the Kings of the Sport in his honor. Thanks to Bob, Gary, Dan, and the entire Leverich team, I\u2019ll have that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leverich Racing is a family owned NHRA Drag Racing team that made the move to NHRA\u2019s premier category in 2015. The Michigan-based team is led by crew chief Gary Leverich, car chief Dan Leverich and assisted by a passionate team of close friends. In recent years, the team\u2019s Top Fuel Dragster has been driven by Audrey Grant and Smax Smith. The selection of Morrison was based on an impressive driving resume, and a synergy and chemistry that fits their \u201cfun-first\u201d family atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are extremely excited to introduce Joe Morrison as our new driver at Leverich Racing,\u201d noted Gary Leverich. \u201cHe brings a wealth of knowledge, tons of driving experience, and an understanding of modern motorsports marketing that, quite frankly, will help us grow together as a team. More than that, Joe\u2019s a great guy, who races for the right reasons \u2013 because it\u2019s fun. It\u2019s our goal to bring back \u2018fun\u2019 in NHRA Top Fuel Racing, and we look forward to starting Joe\u2019s license upgrade process in Florida soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Morrison is the co-founder and CEO of Right2Breathe\u00ae, Inc., which is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization based in New Jersey. His extensive management, entrepreneurial and corporate experience ensures Right2Breathe\u00ae stays focused and on task to accomplish their mission of \u2018Improving the Quality of Life for All those LIVING with Respiratory Diseases.\u201d Right2Breathe\u00ae has completed three NHRA Lung Health Screening Events at Charlotte, NC, Epping, NH, and Maple Grove, PA since 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The Leverich Racing Top Fuel team announced an initial 6-race schedule, pending Morrison\u2019s successful cross-grade NHRA licensing procedures to be completed in mid-January in Southern Florida. The Leverich Racing team is slotted to race at Gainesville, Charlotte\u2019s 4-Wide Nationals, Norwalk, Epping, Virginia, and Maple Grove \u2013 with additional dates added based on new marketing partnerships.<\/p>\n<p>The Right2Breathe\u00ae Project was co-founded in July 2014 by Joe Morrison and Tim Charlet; two secondgeneration Drag Racers who have personal experience as caregivers for family members with pulmonary disease including COPD, Asthma, and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF).<\/p>\n<p>The Right2Breathe\u00ae Project is targeted to a passionate fan-base of over 50 million people in the United States; who share a common passion for motorsports and automotive industry as the organizational cofounders. These individuals, due to their vocation or lifestyle choices, are at high-risk for developing respiratory medical conditions.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KGcFpIgluI4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Since 2014, the Right2Breathe\u00ae Project has completed more than 5,000 FREE lung health spirometry exams, at NHRA National Events, Nostalgia Races, Semi-Professional Baseball, and other automotive venues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Journeyman Nostalgia Drag Racer Joe Morrison is heading to the show.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":67828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029,3399],"tags":[2,7353,7356,41,7,3735,1632,73],"class_list":["post-67826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","category-nhra","tag-drag-racing","tag-joe-morrison","tag-leverich-racing","tag-news","tag-nhra","tag-press-releases","tag-racing","tag-top-fuel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Untitled-1.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-hDY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67826"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67829,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67826\/revisions\/67829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}