Rob Wendland is steering Terry McMillen in the right direction By Josh Hachat

Rob Wendland brought some much-needed experience and expertise to McMillen’ s operation when he became the crew chief before the 2015 season, and the effects include a much more stable race program. McMillen now finds himself in a battle to finish the top 10 in the rugged NHRA Top Fuel class, having also advanced to his first career final round earlier this year.

All it took was a little— well, maybe a lot of— patience.

“ It’ s really been kind of frustrating for me because I’ ve always been a hands-on guy,” McMillen says.“ I worked on my own car and all those things, and I think the biggest thing I’ ve learned in the process is that even though you want it overnight, it’ s not going to happen that way. I think the biggest thing has been patience, learning to go after the car and tweak it a little bit.

“ As we started picking away at those things and spending time with Rob looking at the computer, we’ ve been able to pick up here and there. Once you start running in the low 3.80s, everything after that is very minute moves. It’ s something that you just can’ t jump in and make something work. You can’ t just do that because you’ re so close to the edge.”

Wendland’ s hiring signaled a significant shift in McMillen’ s program, as the goal of competing for a spot in the top 10 and the NHRA’ s six-race Countdown to the Championship became apparent.“ I’ m not getting any younger so obviously it’ s a situation that I really want to do,” McMillen says of Wendland’ s hiring.“ From there we’ ve continued to build the team around him.

“ Rob has just done an excellent job of making everything come together,” McMillen adds.“ We’ ve spent countless hours at the shop to get everything prepared. We’ re doing a lot of our own repairs, so we’ ve got a little more quality control for what takes place.”

Wendland’ s experience included a run at Don Schumacher Racing( DSR), picking up four wins in 2013 as crew chief for Johnny Gray’ s Funny Car. That relationship meant it made perfect sense for McMillen to work with DSR when it came to

parts. McMillen uses cylinder heads, superchargers and much more from Schumacher’ s shop and there’ s no coincidence that a more consistent car has followed. This year, McMillen dipped into the 3.70s for the first time in his career as he continues making steps in the right direction.

“ That technology they have at Schumacher’ s, with the performance of their cars, is certainly trickling over to what we’ re doing. At the end of the day, it’ s becoming a more consistent car. I think the key with what we’ ve learned with Schumacher parts is we don’ t have to make the car work as hard to make it run as good. It starts with the superchargers and the combinations we have.

“ Could we get by with anything else? Absolutely, but Rob has had a better handle with Don’ s stuff because he worked there and I think his persistence is starting to pay off.”

That much is obvious. Through 17 events in 2016, McMillen already has more round wins than he did all of last year, and he’ s qualified for every event as well, proving he can compete against any driver who may be in the opposite lane.

Again, it is baby steps for a talented driver who knows his uphill battle means he doesn’ t get to compare notes with the team’ s second, third or even fourth car. It also means McMillen doesn’ t have unlimited funding, but he’ s also the first

to admit he has good parts and a hungry, albeit young, team willing to put in the work.

“ As the puzzle has been put together, all the pieces are starting to line up now and we’ re being a consistent car that is going to go down the track,” McMillen says.“ Rob’ s building a good motor and he’ s given us a lot to work with. The car is running in the 3.70s now. That’ s something we’ ve been trying to do for quite a few years. It’ s just the relentlessness of Rob and instilling that into the crew guys to keep the passion there. It’ s a passion-driven sport. Rob has instilled that in everybody on the team and with that we’ re seeing some positive results. We don’ t want to be done yet.”

The DSR relationship also became a major factor in what very well could be the turning point in McMillen’ s season earlier this year at Houston. He hit the wall there after a massive explosion in the first round of eliminations against, coincidentally enough, Tony Schumacher. But thanks to Don Schumacher, McMillen had a car again by Wednesday after crashing on a Sunday, continuing to give the season hope.“ If it wasn’ t for Don Schumacher stepping up we probably wouldn’ t be here today,” McMillen admits.

It was very much a trial by fire in a lot of ways for McMillen’ s young team, which has an average age of 23 by the team owner’ s estimates. Growing pains remain, but McMillen and Wendland have tried to use that youthful inexperience to their advantage in molding the direction and philosophy of their program.

“ What we’ ve learned is we’ ve been able to train them the way we want them,” McMillen says.“ You can’ t just make it happen overnight. You have to be able to understand what the prize is you’ re shooting for. In our case, the first step is getting in the top 10 and the second step is we want to win a race.”

Coming close in Gainesville this year only has McMillen hungry to finish the job for the first time in his Top Fuel career. It also has him thinking about future possibilities and he’ s not afraid to dream big— patience be damned— at least for a moment.

“ It’ s extremely rewarding right now when the car is on its game,” McMillen says.“ The one thing we’ ve instilled in our entire team is that no matter what it is, whoever makes the mistake, whatever happens, we’ re a team and we’ re going win as a team and lose as a team. Our goal is to just become a better-oiled machine. I guarantee we’ ve turned the corner.” DI

PHOTO: NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER