Clay
Millican
ugust 2006. Clay Millican and
his Werner Enterprises/Nitro Fish Top Fuel dragster team can be found
parked on the lone concrete pit space on Norwalk Raceway Park’s Budweis-
er pit side. At least that’s where I first met him when I attended my second
drag race, the 2006 IHRA World Nationals, at age 8. I knew the name of
just one drag racer when I first walked through the gate at Norwalk, and
it wasn’t John Force, Don Garlits, or Tony Schumacher; it was Clay Milli-
can. Since my uncle was a truck driver for Werner Enterprises, he would
send me every piece of Clay Millican merchandise in the company store.
T-shirts, diecast dragsters and haulers, post-
ers – I had it all. I even wore my Clay Millican
shirt to the first race I attended, an alcohol
Funny Car versus jet Funny Car match race, be-
cause I assumed Clay would be there to sign it.
He was a drag racer, and I was going to a drag
race – surely he would be there, right? That was
my naïve line of thinking at the time, anyway.
To my surprise, he was not at the small local
bracket race, but Millican was more than willing
to sign my shirt and hero cards a few months later
at the IHRA race. His pit area was a pop ular desti-
nation for fans, as he was not only a warm, lovable
character, but he was also the IHRA’s most suc-
cessful driver. Millican’s marks on IHRA Top Fuel
history – six consecutive world championships, 52
national event wins, and the quarter-mile elapsed
time and speed world records – are untouchable.
A lot has changed since my first encounter
with Millican. His Kenny Koretsky-owned team
switched to full-time NHRA competition for the
2007 season after losing funding from Werner
Enterprises. Despite sponsorship woes through
the Great Recession, Millican continued to com-
pete on a part-time basis from 2008 to 2011,
apart from a solid 20-race schedule in 2009. A
new partnership with Memphis-based Parts Plus
allowed him to compete on the full NHRA tour
with Mark and Lauren Pickens’ MPE Motorsports
team in 2012, then Bob Vandergriff Motorsports
in 2013. After that team disbanded, Millican
brought his funding to Dexter Tuttle Motorsports
for another full season in 2014. When Tuttle’s
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expanding businesses forced him to deescalate
his Top Fuel involvement for 2015, Millican again
found himself looking for a team to call home.
Millican found that home in McLeansboro,
Illinois, a town of around 3,000 people. Just over
10 of those residents are associated with Stringer
Performance, a startup Top Fuel team founded
by Funny Car crew member turned NASCAR
“I did my
infamous
‘reverse burnout’
on that first
run and was
ready to go
back home to
Tennessee, go
back to Kroger
and never
be thought
of again.”
businessman Doug Stringer in December of 2014.
Stringer, who once owned a NASCAR team and
currently heads up Great Clips’ motorsports mar-
keting program, was finally convinced by Millican
to allocate funding to drag racing. While Millican
pitched a mere sponsorship, he ended up with
a new team owner with a passion for winning.
Since joining Stringer Performance with crew
chief David Grubnic, Millican has placed himself
at the top of the “Drivers Due for a First Win”
list. Over the last two seasons, he’s reached the
semifinals nine times, qualified number-one three
times, and qualified for all but two races. This
season, Millican and the Parts Plus/Great Clips
Top Fuel dragster have qualified number-one and
reached the semifinals at the NHRA SpringNa-
tionals in Houston and the NHRA Four-Wide
Nationals in Charlotte.
I sat down with Millican Sunday morning at
the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Drag-
way earlier this spring for a wide-ranging inter-
view, beginning with his humble beginnings in
Top Fuel and wrapping up with his prime position
as a serious contender in 2017.
You made your Top Fuel debut at the 1998
NHRA Route 66 Nationals driving the Chicago
White Sox dragster. Do remember the moment
you found out you were going to become a Top
Fuel driver?
Yeah, absolutely. My life story – and I know
you’re trying to get down to one instance here
– but it’s kind of a cool story, I’ve told it several
times. I called a guy named Raymond King when
I was probably 16 years old. He was a salesperson
at TCI, which is a racing transmission company,
now a part of the COMP Performance Group,
and asked him what I have to do to start trav-
eling to do more races. I wanted to start doing
some IHRA and NHRA races in Super Comp.
For whatever reason, he took me under his wing.
He also had been promoted in this timeframe.
He had been promoted to vice-president of the
company. He was racing himself at the time in a
Mopar, a Dodge. I was a Dodge guy and I think
that’s part of the reason he started helping me.
I’m going to advance the story a bit. TCI was
purchased by the Fel-Pro Gasket Company. I
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