TOP FUEL RUNNER-UP CLAY MILLICAN WINS IN OTHER WAYS
Clay Millican was already grabbing headlines before qualifying even began at the PRO Superstar Shootout . First , he debuted a special “ Cleetus McFarland ” livery on his Jacob Construction / Parts Plus Top Fuel dragster , complete with YouTuber and Freedom Factory owner Garrett Mitchell , better known as Cleetus McFarland , on the side of it . Then , videos of his attempt to run his 11,000-horsepower dragster on McFarland ’ s hub dyno went viral .
With all eyes on Millican , he lined up next to McFarland ’ s turbocharged Corvette known as “ Ruby ” for a grudge match during Wednesday night testing . The two cars staged , the tree dropped , and McFarland took off . Millican waited . And waited . And waited . Finally , he stabbed the gas and chased down McFarland , quickly passing him before the eighth-mile clocks . The vibrations from Millican ’ s car actually made Mc- Farland ’ s car shut off when he passed .
“ I bracket raced for years , so seeing somebody leave doesn ’ t bother me . I ’ m used to that ,” Millican said . “ Not in a Top Fuel car . The hardest part was the tree going and having to sit there . That goes against everything that you ’ ve been training for your entire life of racing . The tree goes , you ’ re supposed to go . I was supposed to let him get to the 330-foot mark . I didn ’ t quite let him get that far . I finally just had to go because I couldn ’ t stand it . I had to go .”
Millican recorded a 3.683 at 330.23 MPH on that pass , which has been watched more than 1.2 million times on McFarland ’ s YouTube video alone . He repeated that number the next night to kick off qualifying as the provisional No . 1 qualifier with a 3.688 at 336.49 . Doug Kalitta came out swinging on Friday and overtook the top spot for the next two sessions , but Millican reclaimed it with his 3.669 at 335.57 alongside Kalitta ’ s 3.672 in the final session . That made the statement that Millican and his Rick Ware Racing team weren ’ t just there to have fun
and generate YouTube views . They were there to compete .
“ Q1 was a little nerve-wracking because there had been so much out there from the Cleetus dyno video to racing Cleetus , and then the last thing you want to do is drop an egg and break it and not qualify ,” said Millican , who picked up a $ 10,000 low qualifier bonus from Lucas Oil . “ So , to go out there and go No . 1 with a career-best speed for me and everybody on this team , from that point forward , we had legitimized all the craziness of this week . Then , to go out there and back that up again [ Saturday night ] just really and truly tells you how good this group is .”
Millican is referring to his Jim Oberhofer-led Parts Plus team , which gained the knowledge and experience of co-crew chief Nicky Boninfante over the offseason .
“ We are making wholesale changes and they ’ re paying off ,” Millican said . “ We ’ ll struggle a little bit sometimes , maybe early on with consistency , but we ’ ve already just reset Jim O ’ s personal-best E . T ., Nicky ’ s personal-best E . T ., the majority of the team ’ s best E . T . Now our next goal is my personal-best E . T ., which is a 3.628 , and we know that ’ s coming . Some of the stuff they ’ re changing , I ’ ve done this so long , I can ’ t tune one , but my eyes are getting big and I ’ m like , ‘ Wow , we ’ re really going to do that ?’ And it ’ s working .”
It certainly worked in eliminations . Millican excelled in hot conditions last season , collecting three NHRA event wins in challenging conditions , and his first-round performance suggested that will continue this year . He set low E . T . of the round by almost two tenths with a 3.792 at 332.67 to beat Shawn Langdon . He knocked out Tony Schumacher with a 3.73 at 333.91 in the semis , missing out on lane choice for the final by two hundredths . In the final against Kalitta , he left second by just nine thousandths but hazed the tires down track , while Kalitta set low E . T . of race day for the win .
“ We now have a hammer to swing when the weather ’ s right , and we didn ’ t have that last year ,” Millican said . “ We had the hammer when it was hot . But now I think we ’ ve got a hammer for the throw-down , home-run sessions too .”
Millican , who ’ s been racing in Top Fuel for more than 20 years , also recognized the big-picture significance of the weekend outside of his pit area .
“ It ’ s been so fun to see people that usually are trying to kill each other pull the rope and make this deal happen ,” Millican said . “ This is a racer ’ s race . This has been truly eye-opening and amazing to see so many people that , like I said , usually are just battling to the end actually battle together to put together an event that , just from looking at it , doing a burnout , looking at the grandstands , looks pretty dang good .” DI
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