With Four Final Round Appearances, Millican Awaits a Winner’s Circle Celebration

SONOMA, CA – After an incredible runner-up finish in the Top Fuel Dragster category at the NHRA Mopar Mile High Nationals, Clay Millican awaits his return to the winner’s circle this coming weekend at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals in Sonoma, California.

To the surprise of many who had expected this year to be a rebuilding season for the team, Millican, who drives the powerful Parts Plus dragster, has gone to four final rounds in 2019 in Gainesville, Las Vegas, Charlotte and Denver. Wholesale changes over the winter months including a new ownership group, a new crew chief, and an all new crew was the basis for those predictions.

The team hasn’t been without challenges with six first round losses and some struggle during qualifying including this last weekend where they failed to reach the finish line under power.

“These machines are often unpredictable and are like taming a wild horse,” says Millican. “Denver is even more challenging with the thin air that led to the first three rough qualifying runs. The car definitely didn’t like what we’re trying to do, but once we listened to the car, we were off as our performance improved dramatically.”

However, race day in Denver brought forth a new set of circumstances that led to setting low ET in round one of Top Fuel along with three strong runs into the final round.

“Our first round run of 3.78 seconds was low ET of eliminations,” continues Millican. “We made three more solid runs on Sunday to take us to the final round. Unfortunately, we were just tuned up a little too much that pass. It was still a heck of a day for our team and I’m very proud of the accomplishments made this season.”

After an impressive showing in Denver, Millican enters the NHRA Sonoma Nationals 5th in Top Fuel points and a mere 2 rounds out of second place.