BRAINERD, Minn. – Terry McMillen drove his AMALIE® Motor Oil INSTIGATOR Top Fuel Dragster to a season best 3.821 in a losing effort to Steve Torrence’s 3.733 in the opening round here in Brainerd. The weekend was full of new NHRA records in both Top Fuel and Funny Car.

“We’re still a team in transition,” McMillen said after the loss. “I’m real proud of the way these guys are coming together. We’re picking away at it and getting really consistent. We’re making consistent runs in the mid .80s and today we got down to the low .80s. We’re starting to give Rob (Wendland – Crew Chief) the same car round after round and now he’s getting excited about tuning it up to go fast. We’re all really excited about getting to the U.S. Nationals in Indy.”

Now McMillen turns his sights to the Traxxas Shootout voting which begins Sunday immediately after the race. Fans can vote once per device by going to http://NHRAFanHub.com and if they needed a reason to vote for McMillen they could view the video the team made starring the newest McMillen – Cameron. Cameron’s quest to help his dad win the Traxxas Shootout Fan vote can be seen on McMillen’s YouTube page https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdypBCaUBS0

KENT, Wash. – The AMALIE® Motor Oil INSTIGATOR Top Fuel team, driven by Terry McMillen found what they were looking for in Seattle – consistency. An opening round win against Dave Connolly was the reward for the team’s efforts.

“I think this is the race we’ll point to and say this is where we turned the corner,” McMillen said. “Rob (Wendland, crew chief) is doing a great job dialing the car and crew in.”

McMillen made runs on Saturday of 3.85 and 3.84 and a 3.89 in a second round Sunday loss to J.R. Todd.

“The crew gave Rob the same motor all weekend,” McMillen said. “We ran the same motor and two sets of heads all weekend. It’s been awhile since we’ve been able to say that. That’s a testament to our crew and how much improvement we’re seeing.”

SONOMA, Calif. – With the midway point of the NHRA season in the rearview mirror Terry McMillen, driver and owner of the AMALIE® Motor Oil INSTIGATOR Top Fuel team and Rob Wendland, Crew Chief for the team decided it was time to make some changes.

“We’re seeing baby step improvements,” McMillen said. “We’re just not getting the improvements as quick as we want. We’ve got the right crew chief in Rob (Wendland), we just need to get the right supporting staff around him. We’ve got some young hard working guys that want to be good, we’ve just got to work with them to get them coached up.”

Wendland and McMillen announced that beginning in Seattle, Bob Peck would be the team’s full-time Assistant Crew Chief. Peck has worked with the Terry McMillen Racing this season in a consultant role and in the past has worked with Joe Amato, Bob Vandergriff, John Force as car chief and as a crew chief for Cori McClenathan.

MORRISON, Colo. – The NHRA’s Western Swing started this weekend in mile high fashion at Bandimere Speedway just outside of Denver. Terry McMillen, driver of the AMALIE® Motor Oil INSTIGATOR Top Fuel dragster had high hopes for the beginning of the ‘swing’, but fell short with an opening round loss to Brittany Force. McMillen ran a 4.18 second elapsed time to Force’s 3.97.

“It certainly wasn’t the way we wanted to start the Western Swing,” McMillen said shortly after the loss. “It was disappointing for sure. Denver is always a challenge. It’s a whole new set up compared to what we run anywhere else. We had an issue with the fuel pump that kept us behind all weekend. When you come here (Denver) you have to have a smaller fuel pump. We had it serviced to make it smaller, but when we get here the pump is making 107 gallons a minute – and we needed to be about 80 gallons. No matter what we did we just couldn’t get rid of all that fuel. So, we’ll put all of these Denver parts in the box for next year and bring out our sea level stuff for Sonoma and see if we can make a difference there.”

McMillen and team will head to Sutter, California for a display and open house on Wednesday July 29 at SWECO Products, 2455 Palm Street, Sutter, California form 11am to 1pm. The public is invited.

JOLIET, Ill. – The stars started to align for Terry McMillen, driver of the AMALIE® Motor Oil INSTIGATOR Top Fuel Dragster – he just couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity.

In his quest to make the Top 10 Countdown, McMillen knows his path must go through other contenders; Leah Pritchett, Dave Connolly, Steve Torrence and Clay Millican. With Millican’s DNQ and a first round matchup with Steve Torrence, McMillen felt a chance to move up in the points standings was available.

“I’m really disappointed with this one,” McMillen said of his first round loss to Steve Torrence. “We really had a great opportunity sitting in front of us to move up towards the Countdown. We just couldn’t take advantage of the situation today.”

The Elkhart, Indiana based team continues to improve posting it’s third straight top 12 Friday night elapsed time that carried over to Saturday qualifying. “We’re not out of this,” McMillen said. “Rob (Wendland, crew chief) is doing a great job and my guys are really stepping up to support him.”

Saturday night’s Wild Ride adds to weekend excitement

NORWALK, Ohio – No one likes losing in the first round of eliminations. That includes Terry McMillen, driver of the AMALIE® Motor Oil Instigator Top Fuel Dragster. And while McMillen has always been a ‘glass half full’ kind of guy, he had no problems finding supporters who also saw the ‘silver linings’ after a first round loss to NHRA points leader Antron Brown.

“This could very well be one of those defining moments,” McMillen said. “One that I’ll remember anyway.”

It’s Saturday night in the Midwest, a 4th of July kind of Saturday night. The kind of night a guy might take his street rod out for a little cruise, maybe even out to the Summit Motorsports Park to check out some fireworks. Someone might describe McMillen’s wild ride during the forth qualifying attempt that way. Others knew it was just a veteran move. After his brakes failed McMillen found himself headed towards the sand-trap. While a little speed was scrubbed from the sand, McMillen was left to navigate the corn field and air strip ahead of him. A slight left turn and the gator themed car rested in the tall grass just north of the track.

“Norwalk is one of the greatest places in the world to drag race,” McMillen said. “I’ve been lucky enough to race here for many years. Heck there’s a picture in our shop with my old Nitro Funny Car when the starter tower was right there on the starting line. So, I remember when I use to run Alcohol Funny Car out here and Rob Atchison got out there and into that ditch a tore his stuff up. And even more recently I was here a few years ago when Angie Smith got out there with her Pro Stock Bike. Needless to say, it was high on my priority list to keep it away from there and learn from what they had been through. I knew once I got through the sand clean and straight I could make a nice smooth left turn. Heck, by the time I was finished we were looking at the runway lights for the airport. I guess I landed a few feet short of the runway – just lost my navigational beacon,” McMillen joked.

But that’s when the work began. “We were joking in the pits about the AMALIE Motor Oil Xtermigator Monster Truck – and how JR (JR McNeal, driver) didn’t have anything on us, since we just proved the Instigator could do a little off-roading itself,” McMillen said. “But in all seriousness, these dragsters aren’t meant for that. So, the guys were here until 3:30 in the morning going over everything with a fine tooth comb to make sure this car was safe to race and then back out here at 7am to get the car ready to race.”

McMillen would post another 3.85 sec. on Sunday to Antron’s 3.79 sec.

“A loss is a loss and I hate it,”  McMillen said. “But we’re looking at a bunch of good things here – maybe that defining moment for us. We made five good runs down the race track this weekend. We were able to see the car make repeat performances even after all the changes we made after the off-roading. And when you study the incremental times that we had against Antron in eliminations, you’ll see that our early numbers (60ft-330ft) were a little slow compared to his, but after that we were glued to him. That’s how close we are!”

McMillen knows that’s from the efforts of his crew and crew-chief. “I can’t say enough about these guys,” McMillen added. “Rob (Wendland- Crew Chief) has done a great job getting all of us to work together as a team. We’re starting to come together and I’m excited about that.”

Headed to Topeka with confidence

COMMERCE, Ga, (May 18, 2015) – Terry McMillen, drove his AMALIE® Motor Oil INSTIGATOR Top Fuel Dragster to his first semi-final appearance since Chicago 2013. All that stood between him and his first potential final round appearance was a fifty cent pin that holds the throttle cable.

“It was a great weekend for our team and our marketing partners,” a smiling McMillen said. “I’m so proud of this team. They’ve been working hard and they’re starting to gel and work together. Rob (Wendland – crew chief) and I kept telling them if we could get the same motor consistently, we could go rounds. They proved that this weekend. I’ve never been more confident of our chances to go rounds on Sunday.”

McMillen would qualify 10th for the Southern Nationals here in Atlanta and post the third quickest elapsed time of the third qualifying session. It earned the team a bonus point – the second of the season. McMillen’s, Rob Wendland tuned dragster would defeat Dave Connolly and Clay Millican in route to a semi-final showdown with Antron Brown, the eventual event winner.

“We weren’t running any big numbers our there,” McMillen said. “We were taking what the track would give us. It was a little tricky in both lanes. The left lane had a bump early and the right lane had a bump late. But we were able to get down both lanes. Rob and Johnny (Johnny West) were making the right calls – just run a consistent number and not beat ourselves out there.” The plan worked  – until the semi-finals.

In the semi-final match-up with Brown, McMillen felt confident, “It was getting pretty warm out there. We had been running low 3.90s all weekend and it looked like that would be all we needed to win the round. Rob tuned it for a 3.89 – maybe a 3.88. It was our best 60ft time of the weekend and, well, who knows what could have happened? Antron ran a 3.91 and we just idled down the track after the throttle cable broke.”

“They crew handled the pressure well,” Crew Chief, Rob Wendland said. “It was the first time some of these guys had to turn the car in eliminations and they stepped up to the challenge.”

McMillen and his team head to Topeka, Kansas with renewed confidence for this weekends NHRA Kansas Nationals. Tickets are available at NHRA.com

photo ©CompetitionPlus.com and Roger Richards