Staring at Sunday's first-round opponent - NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series leader Antron
Brown - crew chief Lance Larsen did what he thought was needed to get Clay Millican and the
LifeLockracing.com Top Fuel dragster into the quarterfinals of the Northwest Nationals at Pacific
Raceways.
Millican (No. 7) had out-qualified Brown (No. 10), but it was Brown who outran him and lit the win
light in 4.073 seconds at 261.52 mph to 4.104 at 268.60.
"We wanted to run a 3.92 or 3.93 (second time), and, for whatever reason, when the car was getting
close to the end of the (starting-line) concrete, it started spinning the tires and it didn't take
long until it was over," said a disappointed Millican. "We knew we needed to run fast against
Antron and, looking back, we should've tried to run 3.99, which we knew we could do. But, when you
are racing against the point leader, you'd better go for it, and we did . . . it just didn't work."
However, it did not affect his Full Throttle Series standings. Millican remained 10th with 567
points. Doug Kalitta, one place ahead of Millican, has 666 and Joe Hartley is 11th, 523.
"We are happy we didn't lose anything in the standings and we got one race closer to Indy,"
Millican said.
Only four of 18 regular-season events remain. The last one is the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis,
Sept. 2-7. The top 10 drivers in all pro categories move into the Countdown to the Championship,
beginning in Charlotte, N.C., Sept. 19-21.
Meanwhile, the Munford, Tenn.-based team heads south to Sonoma, Calif., for the FRAM Autolite
Nationals, July 24-26 at Infineon Raceway. This is concluding race in the exhausting Western
Swing.
