Clay
Millican
to come help us with the car on the weekends.
Jaymond then introduced us to his dad, who was
a vice president at Werner Enterprises. Peter put
together a business plan for them. That’s where
Werner came from.
So you never know who you meet who may
become a sponsor. It really is about relationships.
Every sponsorship is based on relationships. The
famous story of Kenny Bernstein going to the
Budweiser plant and unloading his car and get-
ting a 30-year Budweiser sponsorship – that’s
why that’s such a great story, because that’s not
the normal way things happen.
You went to four final rounds over the course
of the 2013 season. What was it like to make
it to a final round and think, “This might be
it!” then...
It goes away?
Exactly.
We had a really good-running car that year.
There are a couple finals I remember and two
I don’t remember at all. Brainerd was a pretty
awesome weekend. That weekend stands out a
lot to me, for one, we were invited – myself and
my son Dalton – to participate in a Terracross
race. They built a racecourse out in “The Zoo” and
Polaris was unveiling their RZR 1000, which is a
side-by-side. They were doing a celebrity race so
they invited myself, Dalton and Ron Capps and
some of the offroad racers. We did this race out in
“The Zoo”, which I won, I might add. I probably
did Ron Capps a little dirty in the final race. To
quote some of the NASCAR guys, “Eight tires are
better than four,” and I used him up in the corner.
We went out and qualified number one and we
went to the final round. It was like we were on
the verge of clean-sweeping the weekend. I raced
Spencer Massey in the final and it was...to me, I
thought, “This is it. We’re going to do it.” Spencer
absolutely murders the Christmas tree but I actu-
ally left on him. Well, he got us. We got outran. I
don’t even remember the numbers, surprisingly,
considering how much I remember of that really
cool weekend. But we didn’t get it done.
The other final I remember pretty well was
when we raced Tony Schumacher in the final at
Chicago, which is obviously a big race to him –
that’s home. We left the starting line and I think
I was ahead at probably 330-feet, we got the tires
loose and I got back after it. I was thinking I was
catching a little bit but it really started smoking
the tires. Then Tony blew up. It was like, “Ahh,
man.” Tony blew up a little past half-track and he
had enough momentum that he got me.
That’s the two finals I remember from that year.
Then I didn’t make the final, but we went to Po-
mona for the very last race of the year. There was
a whole lot going on within that team at that time.
I knew that was the last race with that team, also
the last race of the season. We raced our way to
the semifinal. Had we won that round, we would
have finished fourth in points, which is a heck of
an accomplishment. But I don’t even remember
the other two finals. I just remember that if we
would have won that semifinal we would have
finished fourth. I ended up finishing sixth, which
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is my best finish to date on the NHRA side of
things. I finished in the Top 10 a few times now.
That was a crazy year. I’m not going to talk about
a lot, but when I write a book – I’ll contact you
when I get to be like 80 years old and I write a
book – I’ll tell more stories about 2013.
Maybe this is included in that, but what
was going through your mind going into
that offseason? What did you do to figure out
what was next?
I knew leaving Pomona that that was probably
the end of that team. Everyone was let go at that
race. Except for me, actually. For whatever rea-
son, I was never told I was let go. But I talked to
several other teams, myself and Steve Tucker with
Parts Plus. We knew that thing was going away;
we were told it was going away. So we talked to a
few different teams. Serious conversations with
a couple teams.
I ended up going with Dexter Tuttle that year
– heckuva great man. He’s got several successful
companies. So we went into 2014. I love Dexter
Tuttle – he’s a great guy – but we struggled. The
car was giving him fits all year long. It wasn’t
my best year ever but I have to say that Dexter
is a man of his word. He did everything he said
he was going to do with me and with Parts Plus.
We did every race and did the best we could do.
Dexter is still a good friend for sure. Another one
of Dexter’s businesses that he started was really
taking off for him and he told me – with plenty
of time – that he wouldn’t be able to do all of the
races (in 2015).
I talked to Parts Plus and a partial season
wasn’t really in their game plan. They’ve got a
very successful hospitality program out here. We
have around 5,000 people from Parts Plus come
through hospitality every year and we’ve done that
since we’ve had Parts Plus. Steve Tucker and I
“It won’t be a
life-changing
moment to
win that first
NHRA race. Is
it something
that I strive for
every day and
work my tail
off to have that
opportunity?
You better
believe it is.”
went to talk to the big teams again. We just could
not find anywhere that it was going to work with
any of the big dogs out here.
And that’s where Doug Stringer came into
the picture?
Well, I’ve known Doug Stringer for a long, long
time; met him through Lance Larsen a million
years ago. I knew Doug owned the company that
handled the Great Clips sponsorship and mar-
keting in NASCAR. Well, I had bugged him for
years to get Great Clips involved in drag racing
because I knew Doug loved drag racing. Doug
came from drag racing. The story he tells is, “I
love drag racing but I went to NASCAR to make
a living.” That’s a heckuva story in itself. I bugged
Doug for years to send some Great Clips spon-
sorship dollars towards me. I was in a bind. I
called Doug, we had a lot of phone calls, and I
told him, “Look, I don’t know what I’m going to
do here. I have Parts Plus but I can’t go to some
of these big teams; it’s just not going to work. I
need some help, some more sponsor dollars to
find myself a home.”
Doug has a little dirt track called Wayne County
Speedway. Doug had a great relationship with
Jason Leffler, a driver who lost his life in a sprint
car accident. Well, Doug hosts every year the
Jason Leffler Memorial race. All the money goes
to Charlie Dean Leffler, Jason’s son. Doug asked
if I could bring the Top Fuel car by his house for
the party they have the night before the race.
It was in between NHRA races, so we went to
Doug’s house for this party. Doug tells this story
all the time. He said the moment he saw that
tractor-trailer rig pulling in the driveway, he knew
he was going drag racing.
How long after that realization did the team
start coming together?
Much to my total surprise, Doug calls me later
and says, “Can we start our own team?” I was
just like, Uhhhh...it had just never crossed my
mind that he would want to own the team. I was
just trying to get him to direct some Great Clips
sponsorship dollars towards me. As it turned out,
he wanted to own the team. We talked about it
for a while.
He actually wanted it to be a Funny Car team.
He came from Funny Cars. He and Lance had
been friends since the Jim Epler Funny Car days.
Doug actually worked on Jim Epler’s Funny Car,
so Doug wanted a Funny Car. He asked if I would
drive a Funny Car and I told him absolutely I will.
It’ll be a little learning curve, but yes, I’ll do it. I
asked him if he had any idea how much Funny Car
bodies cost. Once we talked about that, he’s like,
“You know, I think a Top Fuel dragster sounds
pretty good.” I was certainly okay with that be-
cause I’m a dragster guy – it’s all I’ve ever driven.
Lance (Larsen) and I go to Doug’s house and
he has a shop behind his house – just a big metal
building. It’s not a Brownsburg-type “Garage Ma-
hal”. He has two metal buildings behind his house
and he said, ‘If we’re doing this, the team is going
to be here. It’s not going to be in Brownsburg, it’s
going to be in my backyard.
Lance and I show up the first time and yeah,
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