Waiting an extra day for Monday's first round of O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals eliminations didn't bring hometown favorite Clay Millican any upset luck on a cold, gray day at Memphis Motorsports Park.

There were upsets prior to his run, but Larry Dixon, the No. 1 qualifier, didn't waver. He had the second-quickest elapsed time of the round -- 3.850 seconds at 316.50 mph -- en route to the 1,000-foot victory over Millican's 3.953 at 309.06 in the Hope4Sudan/Motorvation Top Fuel dragster. The time was Millican's quickest of the event.

"We made a lot of changes Sunday (during an all-day rain delay) because we needed to go quicker against Dixon," said Millican, who had a .069-second reaction time to Dixon's .077. "They are a good team.

"We are basically one-tenth of a second behind the quicker cars. It doesn't sound like much, but it sure is in Top Fuel."

This was the third of six races in NHRA's Countdown to 1 championship showdown. Millican is 10th with 2.093 points.

Courtesy of Joe Sherk