{"id":52243,"date":"2018-06-04T10:51:20","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T17:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=52243"},"modified":"2018-08-16T12:25:48","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T19:25:48","slug":"explosive-weekend-culminates-at-route-66-nhra-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/explosive-weekend-culminates-at-route-66-nhra-nationals\/","title":{"rendered":"Explosive Weekend Culminates at Route 66 NHRA Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Explosive
Photos Courtesy NHRA Media<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After an explosive weekend at the 21st annual JEGS Route 66 NHRA Nationals, both Robert Hight and Jeg Coughlin Jr. snagged their first wins of the 2018 season, while Top Fuel driver Clay Millican raced his way to his second straight victory. While these drivers had reason to celebrate, both John Force and Tommy Johnson, Jr. were left wondering what happened after surviving horrific crashes at Route 66 Raceway.<\/p>\n

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Top Fuel<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Explosive<\/p>\n

Despite Steve Torrence earning his first top qualifying spot of the season after setting both ends of the track record with a blistering run of 3.677-seconds at 333.58 MPH in his Capco Contractors dragster, it was Millican who drove his way to his first event win of the season following Sunday\u2019s final elimination round. After defeating Pat Dakin, Scott Palmer and Doug Kalitta, the defending event winner would face Don Schumacher Racing\u2019s girl on fire \u2013 Leah Pritchett – in Sunday\u2019s final round. After piloting his Parts Plus\/Great Clips dragster to 3.894-second pass at 289.32 MPH, Millican took down Pritchett to earn his second Wally of the 2018 season at the track where the six-time World Champion made his first career NHRA Top Fuel start.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis place is really special, and my team gave me such a good car here,\u201d said Millican. \u201cAlthough it was not necessarily my best weekend, it was certainly pretty cool to have the team pull together and just keep turning those win lights on.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his second straight win, Millican moved to second in points behind No. 1 qualifier Torrence going into next weekend\u2019s event at Virginia Motorsports Park.<\/p>\n

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Funny Car<\/strong><\/p>\n