{"id":26192,"date":"2016-04-15T09:41:07","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T16:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=26192"},"modified":"2018-08-16T12:37:14","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T19:37:14","slug":"clay-millican-fifth-in-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/clay-millican-fifth-in-points\/","title":{"rendered":"Clay Millican Fifth in NHRA Points"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"clay<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the NHRA\u2019s fan favorite drivers is Clay Millican.\u00a0 The personal Millican from Drummonds, Tennessee shows his southern hospitality naturally and race fans relate with his openness and welcoming personality.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s also that other side of him: the friendly and talkative Millican who will tell you that he\u2019s also a verified fierce veteran in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel series and to prove his point, check to see who\u2019s fifth in the standings.\u00a0 He\u2019s ahead of J.R. Todd, Dave Connolly, Terry McMillan, Tony Schumacher, Leah Pritchett and Richie Crampton, being only 65-points out of the lead with Charlotte\u2019s 4-Wide race up next weekend.<\/p>\n

Crew chiefs of Millican\u2019s Parts Plus dragster are former driver, David Grubnic and long time leader, Lance Larson.\u00a0 Winning is definitely on the minds of these two as the producers of horsepower on the Doug Stringer Performance team.\u00a0 Both are former winners and running a career best 3.722 second pass in Gainesville is definitely sending a message for other teams to take notice of this group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to give you Grubby and Lance\u2019s game plan on their strategy to run this car this season,\u201d said Millican.\u00a0 \u201cI drive it and Doug Stringer may own it, but they are still the coaches on the team.\u00a0 Their goals are to hurry up, get that first win out of the way, and try to be in the top five in the points when the Countdown starts and so far, I would say, we\u2019re on track.<\/p>\n

\"clay<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t gotten that first NHRA win out of the way, yet, but its coming.\u00a0 The car is running great.\u00a0 Grubby and Lance are doing a super duper job and we already have had two semi-final finishes.\u00a0 They would laugh at me because they want to get that first win out of the way and I would say \u2018I will take semi-final and runner-up finishes all the way through Indy and then let’s just win the last six\u2019.\u00a0 See, that will take care of all of it, the championship and get that first win out of the way in one swoop, so to speak.\u00a0 Seriously, I couldn\u2019t be any happier with everything that has gone on so far this season.\u00a0 This team is a year and a few months old.\u00a0 We\u2019re a single car team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a top five runner shows that his Stringer Performance team is consumed with doing well and it\u2019s contagious throughout the whole organization.\u00a0 According to Millican, it\u2019s not how big your shop is, but rather how big your team spirit is inside the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about this all the time,\u201d beamed Millican.\u00a0 \u201cWe work in a shop right behind Doug\u2019s house.\u00a0 He calls it the nitro barn.\u00a0 Therefore, we work out of the nitro barn.\u00a0 I mean, it is a nice shop and we are happy.\u00a0 The shop is based in a little small place called McLeanboro, Illinois and I\u2019m still in Tennessee.\u00a0 I go back, the shop and the town reminds me of a time when they see you, they know you\u2019re part of the race team.\u00a0 I really, really appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millican would be quick to tell you that driving for a former winning driver like Dave Grubnic can relate to what Millican is saying after a run.\u00a0 It\u2019s a language of their own and I don\u2019t mean just because Grubnic is Australian and Millican is southern born and bred.\u00a0 It\u2019s more of a seat of pants description from Millican telling the driver Grubnic what the car did or didn\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

\"clay<\/a>
Dave Grubnic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe fun part about working with Grubby, being a former driver, he\u2019s always been involved with the tuning of his car.\u00a0 We can make a run and I can tell him I felt the car vibrate the tires a little bit, but not really — tire shake that feels like tire shake.\u00a0 He gets it.\u00a0 He understands what I\u2019m trying to tell him because simply, he\u2019s been there.\u00a0 He\u2019s done it and he\u2019s done it recently.\u00a0 That\u2019s been a lot of fun being so open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have to make any excuses to him for anything because he\u2019s driven longer than I have.\u00a0 We both laugh and he tells me all the time, \u2018Man, this crew chief stuff is way more pressure than the driver stuff.\u2019 \u00a0How do you figure that, I asked him?\u00a0 If we screw up, it\u2019s on me, as a driver.\u00a0 Either, I got beat on a hole-shot or I two-stepped it or I red-lighted whatever the case may be.\u00a0 That\u2019s pretty much the end of it.\u00a0 Now, as a crew chief, if we go out there and smoke the tires, the crew chief has to spend a week until the next race figuring out why the car smoked the tires.\u00a0 As a driver, you know immediately what you did wrong and you know not to do it again.\u00a0 This crew chief thing is a lot harder than being a driver.\u00a0 A driver has a lot of pressure on him for a very small amount of time.\u00a0 Then, it\u2019s over with for me.\u00a0 For the crew chief, he has to get that car ready to go again whether it is next round or next race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining Grubnic, who is keeping Millican running in the low 3.70s, is Millican\u2019s longest standing member of his team, the one and only co-crew chief of Lance Larson.\u00a0 The pair have been working together now for over a decade and the bond of mutual respect is immense.<\/p>\n

\"clay<\/a>
Lance Larsen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cLance and I have been working together, I think for 11 years,\u201d said Millican, who qualified second at the Gatornationals.\u00a0 \u201cLance is kind of the big brother I never had.\u00a0 He\u2019s been tuning nitro cars for as long as I\u2019ve been old and I\u2019m old. \u00a0I\u2019m 50 years old and that\u2019s pretty unbelievable in just the amount of knowledge he has been a part of and what this guy has seen.\u00a0 He\u2019s been 25-years clean and sober and you have to commend a guy that can say that.\u00a0 He\u2019s just a good person and he\u2019s a good man.\u00a0 He\u2019s an unbelievable teacher.\u00a0 He loves tuning on these things but I think he enjoys teaching as much as anything else.\u00a0 The group we have right now is a very, very young group of guys.\u00a0 There\u2019s many others that Lance has trained and got their start with him.\u00a0 He\u2019s an amazing guy and he is 100 percent pure nitro.\u201d<\/p>\n

The magic of Millican is his ability to connect with the fans and has built up numerous friendships over the years all across the county.\u00a0 Fans find him approachable and open and he will strike up a conversation with you just as quick as he can write his autograph.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t know [why he is such a fan favorite], but one thing I know is how lucky I am to being able do what I do.\u00a0 My parents couldn\u2019t afford to put me in a nitro car, so I was a fan at the races outside the ropes waiting for Eddie Hill\u2019s autograph.\u00a0 It was all the guys in the pits I used to look up to like Kenny Bernstein.\u00a0 Now when I would look out there and see fans, I will go out and sign, if that\u2019s what they would like.\u00a0 There are times in between rounds when you don\u2019t have time especially on race day.\u00a0 I want to make sure they have fun and I want to let them know that I appreciate them spending their money to watch us race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at social media, I do my dang best to like everybody I can.\u00a0 I have a blast on Twitter (@claymillican).\u00a0 I think I have \u2018liked\u2019 96 to 97,000 people.\u00a0 I get on there and chat with people that I know really well and some are new fans.\u00a0 I\u2019m just having fun talking with people and race fans.\u00a0 I love the people online on Facebook and Twitter and the people who come out to see us race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Up next for Millican is the tricky 4-Wide NHRA Nationals at zMAX Dragway and it\u2019s a one time, one of a kind event and no matter whether you\u2019re a rookie or a veteran, this kind of racing with all the different procedures can cause other teams to have problems.<\/p>\n

\"clay<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just different,\u201d said Millican.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve done it every year with the exception of one, maybe.\u00a0 The biggest hurdle for the team is trying to get all four cars started at one time and staged at the right time.\u00a0 We have a limited amount of time the car needs to be running.\u00a0 It\u2019s burning a lot of fuel, so that\u2019s hard for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the driver, we have to make sure which stage bulb we\u2019re looking at and once you get that figured out, then the real hard part comes on race day.\u00a0 On a typical race, if you smoke the tires seeing your opponent driving away from you, you shut the car off.\u00a0 Save all that money from an engine explosion.\u00a0 At the Four-Wide, you are just not racing that other guy in the other lane beside you.\u00a0 You cannot see them in the other two lanes, so that makes it hard for me being tied directly into the checkbook of the owner.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t have the funding to keep going, we\u2019re in trouble.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard because you have to drive that car to the finish line because you can\u2019t see the other cars you\u2019re racing against on the track.\u00a0 They take the top two on every elimination run.\u00a0 You might want to punish your equipment.\u00a0 From a fan perspective, it\u2019s a one of kind event that is an absolute must see.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing else like it anywhere.\u00a0 Four times the nitro cars are four times the fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clay Millican and his crew have worked hard to get to fifth in the points standings, and they don’t plan on stopping there.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":26198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,17,3399],"tags":[3815,1943,7,73],"class_list":["post-26192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-guest-column","category-nhra","tag-2016-nhra-mello-yello-drag-racing-series","tag-clay-millican","tag-nhra","tag-top-fuel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/featuredimage6.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-6Os","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26200,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26192\/revisions\/26200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}