The popular Tennessee driver is 10th, the final position to advance to the six-race Countdown to the Championship that begins next month. He holds a 44-point advantage over Joe Hartley going into the Lucas Oil Nationals that runs Friday through Sunday at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway.

"We have three tough races coming up," said Millican, "and right now, we are focused on the one in Brainerd. We've only raced there once before, but we know what we need to do. We need to qualify in the top half of the field and win as many rounds on Sunday as we can. And then we need to keep doing the same thing.

"The points are so close. They could have a good weekend and get even closer. At the same time, we could do the same and put more distance between us. It's still good for us to be in the lead, but we would like to have more breathing room.

Millican noted that crew chief Lance Larsen "spent the last two weeks working on improving the performance of our LifeLockracing.com dragster. He and the crew checked out the chassis, the fuel system and the clutch - all important areas that make the car go quick and fast. We know if we do our job and win rounds, we can move on. I want to spend as much time as I can driving this car.

"We'll be concentrating on each one of our runs . . . and checking to see what Hartley does, too."

This is Millican's second season of Full Throttle Series racing. He was runner-up at Topeka in May and he has a semifinal finish at Chicago.

Next week, the team moves to Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa. The regular season finale, the 55th Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, unfolds Sept. 4-7 at O'Reilly Raceway Park, Indianapolis, Ind.

Qualifying schedule:
Friday, 2:45 and 5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 11:15 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. Sunday, eliminations begin at 11 a.m.
Television: ESPN2 and ESPN2HD, All times ET
Saturday: one hour of qualifying coverage, 6 p.m.; Sunday: NHRA Race Day, a 30-minute pre-race show, 11 a.m.; three hours of eliminations coverage, 10 p.m.

Courtesy of Joe Sherk