Dirt
Peep
Show
Preston ‘Peeps’ Pennington notches
Spring Fling Million victory
By John DiBartolomeo
T
he day arrived. Maytag/Silver-
state Refrigeration Million Dollar Fri-
day, the main event of the K&N Spring
Fling Million presented by Optima Bat-
teries, a day which can certainly change the life
of one person.
And so began the first round of eliminations for
the main event, the one everyone wants to win,
Million Dollar Friday. When the first round was
complete almost three hours after it began, 344
entries had taken their shot at the win. According
to the progressive winner’s share, someone was
going to walk home at the end of the night with
a $375,000 check, possibly the largest amount
of money paid to date for the win of any single
drag race, regardless of class.
Because no one hit the Run For The $50K,
co-promoters Kyle Seipel and Peter Biondo chose
to roll $20,000 over to the first person who laid
down a perfect run in Friday’s eliminations, which
never occurred, albeit still an admirable effort
and the reason so many racers like the Spring
Fling brand of races.
The PRO38 class of foot-brakers once again
battled down to a final round, where Andy
Schmall battled Dustin Henry with Schmall get-
ting the win. The win included a bonus of $500
and the advancement to the Super Pro round
seven with the remaining Super Pro competitors.
Round six competitors included Val Torres Jr.,
Jason Lynch, Chris Northrup, Aaron Gee, Kenny
Underwood, Peeps Pennington, Jeremy Maples,
Brandon Jamall, Dan Northrop, Dan Lafferty,
Shane Carr, Dustin Dee Long, Lane Dicken and
John Labbous. Winners that round included Carr,
Gee, Dicken, Schmall, Lynch, Pennington, Dan
Northrop, Jarrell, in addition
to PRO38 winner Schmall.
Quarterfinal round and
the winners were Carr,
Northrop, Pennington and
while Pennington was tech-
nically in a door car, his
roadster, the lone remaining
PRO38 door car of Schmall
was still hanging tough with
the delay box crowd.
Four cars and four tough
competitors remained. First
up was Carr and Northrop,
with Carr using a .003 reac-
tion time to Northrop’s .022
for the win. Next up were
the two remaining “door cars,” Pennington and
Schmall, with Pennington taking the win while
Schmall ran .004 under his dial. And with that,
the final was set with former Vegas Fling winner
Pennington looking for his second Fling trophy,
while Carr, driving Shane Thompson’s 4.4-second
car at this race, has won at just about every big-
money race all across the country.
In the final, Pennington had the reaction time
advantage and held on for the win to add his name
to an impressive list of Million Dollar race win-
ners, earning a record amount of money for his
efforts, taking it all the way back to Three Rivers,
Texas. The one question he asked after the final?
“Can I still race tomorrow on the last day?” Not a
good idea. But he enjoyed a two-night stay at the
Cosmopolitan Resort as part of his winnings.
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
Must Have
Experience
Ray Miller III leans on a lifetime
of education to forge success
By Kelly Wade
30 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
ness, Miller Race Cars in Spring City, Tennessee,
where they build proven, championship-caliber
vehicles – not just for themselves, but also for
others, including 2017 Super Comp world champ
Austin Williams.
“You have to be prepared, and between equip-
ment and cars, we were ready to start the season,”
he continues. “So far, things have been falling my
way and working out really well.”
Miller grew up in a world of chassis refinement
and competition, learning the ins-and-outs as he
worked with his father at the shop and accom-
panied him to the racetrack. The Miller family
is all about racing, in most every way, and their
achievements on the racetrack speak to that
dedication.
“I pretty much live around racing,” says Miller.
“If I’m not racing, I’m either building race cars
for customers or working on my own. We have a
cabin up north that we go to in the summertime
for a couple of weeks, but most days it’s race cars
or racing-related.”
Issue 145
T
he beginning of any race season
is a fresh page of a new story, and for
Ray Miller III, the early chapters of
2019 NHRA competition have been
promising page-turners. This isn’t the first vol-
ume of his racing career, though, and Miller is
calling on past experience to compose a favorable
ending to the year.
By mid-May, Miller had raced in three national
and three divisional events. He was leading the
points in Super Comp with three wins and a
runner-up and had lodged himself into the top
10 in Super Gas.
“My equipment and cars have just been really
good,” says Miller, who is dedicated to his craft
in more ways than one. He logs countless hours
alongside his father, Ray Jr., at their family busi-