JOLIET, Ill. – For the second time in as many weeks Terry McMillen drove his Amalie Oil / UNOH / All Star Performance Top Fuel Dragster to the semifinals. This is McMillen’s third appearance of the season and fourth of his career.
“When you sit back and think about this, it’s almost surreal,” McMillen said. “We’re now 12 races into this – three times we’ve been to the semis and five times we didn’t qualify, it’s a crazy ride but right now we’re loving it.”
McMillen was able to take out top qualifier Morgan Lucas in round one. Lucas had set the track record in Saturday night qualifying (3.737), but McMillen made his best effort of the weekend in the opening round (3.856 @322.11 mph) to knock out the number one qualifier.
In round two, McMillen and Steve Torrence gave the fans a show with a side by side peddalfest. McMillen was able to make a textbook recovery, allowing he car to settle down before back peddling the throttle. His dragster settled down, hooked back up and still ran 297 mph to the finish line for the win. Clay Millican stood between McMillen and his third chance of the season to make it to the final round, but today wouldn’t be the day for Terry.
“That’s another great weekend for us,” McMillen said. “I’m so thankful for our sponsors who have stuck with us through these bumps in the road. I couldn’t be prouder of my crew. They’ve really come together through all of this. These guys are dedicated to making this one of the best cars in the NHRA. I’m not ready to say we’ve got this thing figured out, but every time we go down the track we’re learning something and we’re using what we’ve learned to improve.”
The next stop for McMillen and crew is this weekend’s Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, July 4-7 in Norwalk, Ohio.
McMillen by the Numbers
- 4
Number of career semifinal appearances. McMillen’s first was Atalanta 2011 - 7
Number of round wins this season so far. Best previous – 6 round wins in 2011 - 137
Number of points away from Top 10 with 6 races remaining from the countdown
Photo credit – Rhonda McCole – CompetitionPlus.com
