Fantastic Four-Wide!
Results from Charlotte
Parts
Plus/Great Clips Dragster Reaches Finals of Weird, Wild Four-Wide Nationals in
Charlotte
CONCORD,
N.C., April 30, 2018: You could say the four-wide format in the NHRA
Mello Yello Series is starting to grow on Parts Plus/Great Clips driver Clay
Millican. On Sunday, Millican nearly became only the fourth driver—and the first
Top Fuel racer—in the eight-year history of the annual zMAX four-wide classic to
reach the finals and win the event despite finishing second in
the first two rounds.
“Y’know, I’m not the biggest four-wide fan, but if we keep
running like this every year, I may fall in love with it yet,” says Millican,
who was the No. 1 qualifier a year ago with a 3.716@325.77-mph run and reached
the finals in 2016. “It was cooler than expected today early today, but that
was good for us. We showed once again we can run this Parts Plus car in any
kind of conditions and not lose a step.”
Qualifying wasn’t exactly smooth sailing, though, as the
Parts Plus/Great Clips team’s recent struggles in Friday’s homerun session continued
at Charlotte. But Millican bounced back in a big way in Q4, running the
second-quickest pass of the session on a hot track with a 3.840@323.27,
earning bonus points in the process.
Millican, who would start Sunday in the
No. 7 position, was confident the Parts Plus car would run well when it counted
despite the inherent chaos of the zMAX four-wide.
“The Christmas Tree is different
with the staging procedure, with the four cars out there, but the format is
essentially the same as usual when you get down to it,” Millican says. “It’s
still one driver, your car and your team. That said, it can be more challenging for the crew chief,
as teams only get one qualifying run in each lane, so there’s less
information to make an effective decision as to which lane to select. I’m glad
Grubby [Stringer Performance crew
chief David Grubnic] has to do that and not me. For me, I just have to go out
there and beat three other drivers.”
Or as Millican illustrated Sunday, beating
just two other drivers in the early rounds is pretty dang good, too, with each
quad’s winner and the runner-up both advancing.
With the unexpected always expected during
four-wide racing, it shouldn’t have been surprising when plenty of traditional
heavy hitters were eliminated early, including all three Don Schumacher cars in
a span of five minutes.
The Parts Plus/Great Clips dragster was also in danger of
heading toward the exits when the car started to lose traction in Sunday’s
first round before Millican pedaled it and got it hooked up to finish in the
runner-up spot, 0.5647 seconds (a little over 100 feet) behind Dom Lagana.
Millican edged Tony Schumacher by 0.321 seconds (more than 100 feet) ahead,
while Leah Pritchett’s day ended in fourth.
“The Parts Plus car just got in front of me a little bit,
and I moved it around a whole lot, and the car ended up spinning the tires, but
fortunately I was able to get it hooked back up and take second,” Millican
explains. “Only at the four-wide can you ‘lose’ but still advance. It’s
a wild spectacle, for sure.”
With the sun emerging, and the temps rising in the air
and on the track, Millican lined up in lane one against Mike Salinas, Lagana
and Doug Kalitta for E2. This time, the Parts Plus/Great Clips dragster was
second off the line but went straight down the groove, advancing to the finals as
the runner-up, finishing 0.0813 seconds (about 38 feet) behind Kalitta. The
Parts Plus/Great Clips dragster topped Lagana by 0.044 seconds (about 20 feet),
with Salinas finishing last in the quad.
That put Millican in position make history as the first Top
Fuel driver to take home a four-wide Wally without winning quad one or two. In
the event’s eight-year history, only Greg Anderson (Pro Stock), Robert Thight (Funny
Car) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) have managed to take advantage of
the unique nuances of the four-wide to earn that rather dubious honor.
Lined up against Torrence, Kalitta and Terry McMillen in
the final four, the Parts Plus/Great Clips dragster ran hard off the line but
spun the tires at about the midway point. Torrence went straight down the groove
and never looked back, winning the quad and the event with a 3.813@326.56 mph.
“Of course, we wanted to win,
but we’re pretty happy right now. The Parts Plus/Great Clips dragster is still the
quickest car out there. Our only problem right now is maintaining that
consistency because our car is either a rocket ship or a dud—there’s
no in-between with it.
“I think it’s just a matter of Grubby figuring out that math
problem to make the Parts Plus car run more consistently; when that happens,
we will be winning more trophies. But I’m
going to focus on doing my job. It’s fun knowing we’re
capable of beating anyone out there each and every time we line up.”
2018 Mello Yello Series Top Fuel Point Standings (Through 6 of 24
Events)
1. Steve Torrence, 503
2. Tony Schumacher, 426
3. Doug Kalitta, 401
4. Clay Millican, 384
5. Antron Brown, 362
6. Leah Pritchett, 315
7. Brittany Force, 311
8. Terry McMillen, 305
9. Richie Crampton, 263
10. Scott Palmer, 249