But it certainly didn't tarnish the Hope4Sudan/Motorvation team's performance in the last three NHRA Full Throttle Series events, during which Millican not only erased a 105-point deficit while moving from 11th to 10th place, he then narrowed the gap separating him from ninth to 57 points.

He opened eliminations with a victory over Doug Kalitta, the driver directly ahead of him in points. Millican's quick .019-second reaction time provided a lead he never relinquished, turning on the win light in 3.907 seconds at 309.27 mph to a 3.924 at 307.72.

"My foot kept saying it was time to go at the starting line, but my brain didn't think so," Millican said, recalling his quick start. "After my foot went down, I was able to take a look at the bottom of the 'tree as I went by and saw the light was green. I told myself I got away with one that time."

Millican said crew chief Lance Larsen and the crew knew they needed to step up the car's performance against Schumacher. "He was the No. 1 qualifier and he'd run a 3.816 in his first-round win. We didn't need to change much. We were looking at running in the mid-3.80s."

This is where the nuances of drag racing - the would've, should've and could've of competitive facets - come into play.

"Heck we could've run a mid-3.90 and would've won if we'd known Tony would have a very rare .121-second reaction time," said Millican, who had a conservative .061. That would have been enough had the tires not lost traction, slowing Millican and permitting Schumacher to drive by and into the semifinals, 3.896 at 307.02 to 4.269 at 243.68.

"This has been a fantastic three weeks," Millican added. "It has been a good three races, for sure. This team worked hard together and showed what we can do. We came from 11th place to 10th and started working on getting to ninth place.

"They are already looking forward to our next race at Norwalk (Ohio, June 26-28). They don't have to work next weekend, but I'll be in Budds Creek (Md.) for the Pinks All Out race."

Courtesy of Joe Sherk