MILLION DOLLAR RACE DRAG RACE – SATURDAY RESULTS
The Summernationals, the Winternationals, the ‘Fling, Indy. Only one word is necessary to describe the most famous races on the drag racing 
tour. And you can add the Million to those. Now we certainly don’t suggest that the Million holds the same mystique as the U.S. Nationals, but for the past 19 years it has built itself into a brand, a race which requires only one word to describe; and that is excitement.
And so it is once again that the 19th version of the CARS Protection Plus Million Dollar Race has come to pass. Two hundred and thirty nine entrants chose to come up with the $2,000 entry fee to be a part of the largest payday in drag racing history. In accordance with the basic rules of the event, the entire purse is guaranteed right up to the runner-up prize of $50,000. The winner? Based on car count, he (or she) will stand to walk away this year with $225,000. Not a bad payday.
At six cars and with three of them door cars, Rodney Phagan, Jarod Wilson, Peeps Pennington, Heath Davis, Cecil Hankins and Tracey Guffey would assure a new winner of the Million Dollar Race. In the quarterfinals, Phagan defeated Wilson, Pennington took the best of Davis and Hankins put out Guffey.
For the semifinal round, Phagan and his door car earned the bye run while Pennington and Hankins both scored perfect reaction times. But it was Hankins who ran dead on his dial with a “4” to move into the final round against Phagan.
The story of the night had to be Hankins, whose brand new dragster was delivered to the track on Wednesday, never before seeing it or sitting in it. A true fairy tale that he was looking to complete by winning the Million Dollar Race in its first outing.
In his semifinal round bye run, Phagan had a .007 reaction time and for the final he obviously tightened that up some, scoring a perfect .000 reaction time in the final and coupled it with a .015 over his dial to end the fairy tale story for Hankins. The win, the trophy, the money and the notoriety that goes along with being a Million Dollar winner will go home to Williamson, Georgia with Phagan and his car owner. Phillip Ridgeway.
Phagan said afterwards, “I still can’t believe it. This car ran awesome all day and the track was one of the best I’ve ever seen.
And the action will continue on for one more day, Sunday, the final of the Triple 20s. Continue to log onto www.themilliononline.com to watch all of the racing as it happens.
