A dropped cylinder at the hit of the throttle Sunday set off a chain reaction that ultimately sent
Clay Millican to an opening-round loss to Morgan Lucas in the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at
Bristol Dragway.
Millican, who qualified the Hope4Sudan/Motorvation Top Fuel dragster in the No. 6 position, never
had a chance to challenge Lucas for the round win.
"When the engine dropped the cylinder that quickly, that's about it as far as winning the round
goes," said a disappointed Millican. "That led to the tires smoking, and when that happened, we
really were done because Morgan (Lucas) just pulled away from us. He had the second-quickest
elapsed time of the round (3.836 seconds at 319.75 mph to Millican's shutting off 6.778 at 87.35).
It would have been tough to beat that run.
"So now we'll go home and get ready to go to Topeka (May 29-31)."
