TOP FUEL

Eleven Top Fuel cars made qualifying laps at Budd's Creek and when all was said and done, Millican once again finished first in the Werner Enterprises-sponsored dragster with

ADVERTISEMENT

a 4.680-secs pass at 312.13 mph. All four entries in the top half of the field ran in the four-seconds range, while the bottom half was in the fives, with Roger Dean filling the eighth spot with an off-the-pace 5.49 at 189.26 mph.

Millican, Josh Starcher, Bruce Litton, and Danny Dunn advanced from the opening round, setting up semi-finals of Millican versus Starcher and Litton versus Dunn. Both races wound up as solo passes, though, after Starcher broke on the burnout and Dunn was unable to answer the call to stage. That left the most familiar final-round pairing in drag racing -- Millican versus Litton.

With his 100th Top Fuel round win on the line, Millican gained a very slight starting line advantage, but both cars were quickly engulfed in tire smoke. The two drivers pedaled their way downtrack until the blower belt on Litton's Lucas Oil-backed dragster came off and Millican was able to hold on and post the win in 7.385 seconds and just 212.09 mph.

"The final round was interesting," Litton said afterward. "I honestly thought we were in it until the end. We were in it until the belt came off and then we just coasted through."

Millican and crew chief Mike Kloeber celebrate their win at MIR.

Millican agreed.

"Today was wild and crazy, and I was just glad when the win light came on in the final round," he said. "Luckily, our Goodyear belt stayed on, but unfortunately, Bruce's belt didn't. I definitely felt like this race track owed us one after last year, and it gave us a win today, so I'm very happy."