BROWNSBURG, Ind, (September 3, 2018) – Terry McMillen and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ team accomplished what many thought was unobtainable for the Elkhart, Indiana driver. They won the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals, arguably the largest drag race in the NHRA series..

Just three seasons ago, McMillen was ready to walk away from the sport that he loved dearly, after a season of struggles and mishaps had shaken his belief that he belonged in the sport.

“I’ve always said persistence out weighs resistance,” McMillen said. “That day in Charlotte, I had briefly lost faith in that statement. Ultimately it was the fans and Amalie that believed in me that day and picked me up.”

“There are two things that everyone remembers about a season,” McMillen continued. “They remember the season champion and who won Indy. I’m very proud of my team for accomplishing that goal. We won Indy and no one can ever take that away from us,”

McMillen qualified 13th for the sun drenched event that made for tricky conditions for the crew chiefs. The win would be especially tough from the bottom half of the ladder which saddled the team with the right lane. It seemed to be the trickier of the two lanes.

His first round match-up with Scott Palmer proved to be the little luck they needed to master the right lane. Palmer would shut his car off after the team saw something they didn’t like, giving McMillen a solo run to the quarter-finals.

“Palmer’s circumstance gave us the window we needed, McMillen said. “Rob (Crew Chief, Rob Wendland) learned what  we needed to do to slide our hot rod down that lane on that pass.”

It worked for team Amalie. McMillen was able to defeat points leader Steve Torrence in round two, rookie Blake Alexander in the semi-finals and veteran Doug Kalitta in the finals.

While McMillen had a good light in the finals, Kalitta would take an advantage that almost proved too tough to overcome.

“Doug drilled me on the tree, McMillen said of Kalitta’s .047 light to his own .071. “But I think we had it made up around the 60 foot mark. Rob did a fantastic job of getting us through that final round. I think Doug dropped a hole and we did too. Ours was just a little later than his.”

“I used to come here years ago to watch the race with my boys,” McMillen said. “We would always dream of winning the race. Today that dream came true.”

MORRISON, Colo. (July 22, 2018) – Terry McMillen and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel team struggled with the heat and high elevation of Denver. McMillen qualified 12th and suffered an opening round loss to Richie Crampton. He remains seventh in the points standings.

“It always good to visit Denver,” McMillen said. “It’s just so dry and so hot. It’s just a battle from the time we get here until the time we leave. We still struggle with the right combination for the thin air up here.”

The next stop  on the NHRA Western Swing is Sonoma, California, where McMillen hopes to get back to winning rounds. The 2017 season saw McMillen make a semi-final appearance in Sonoma. “I’m excited to get back to sea-level conditions,” McMillen said as he headed west. “We made up some ground last year on the last two races of the Western Swing. We’re hoping to improve on what we did last year.”

McMillen lost to Antron Brown in the Sonoma semi-finals and lost on a hole-shot to Brown again in the Seattle final round.

Qualifying for the Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals begins Friday July 27 with eliminations on Sunday July 29.

NORWALK, Ohio (June 24, 2018) – The Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals marked the fourth final round appearance in 12 races for Terry McMillen and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel team. McMillen defeated defending NHRA Champion Brittany Force in round one of eliminations, Richie Crampton in round two and points leader Steve Torrence in the semi-finals. In the final round, McMillen faced Blake Alexander and led the race to about half track before the car started hazing the tires. Alexander was able to drive around McMillen to score his first NHRA victory.

“We may never win another race,” McMillen said. “But if we keep winning rounds and keep getting to the finals, we have a chance to win the Championship.”

Consistency is something McMillen and his crew chief Rob Wendland have been concentrating on this season. “We have to be consistent and get down the track competitively,” McMillen added. “You can’t take any of these teams out here lightly, it’s a tough field. At the same time we have to constantly work on improving. We tried some new things in Bristol and it just didn’t work out. With the rain here, it was tough to try anything different, so we went back to our proven set-up on Sunday.”

With the final round appearance, McMillen moves back to sixth in the points standings, one round and one point ahead of Antron Brown and about four rounds behind Leah Pritchett for fifth.

McMillen has 13 round wins on the season, just one short of his 2017 total. He has also won 52% of elimination rounds in 2018.

The NHRA Mello Yello tour takes a week off before heading to Epping, New Hampshire for the NHRA New England Nationals July 6-8.

BRISTOL, Tenn. (June 17, 2018) – The NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals proved to hot to tame for Terry McMillen and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel team. McMillen lost an opening round match up with Tony Schumacher. McMillen’s loss, combined with Doug Kalitta’s win, keeps McMillen tied with Brittany Force for seventh in the points standings.

The loss didn’t dampen McMillen’s Father’s Day.

“There’s a lot of fathers on this team,” McMillen said. “We celebrate that today instead of worrying about this loss. There’s a lot of season left and we’ll be fine once we figure this out.”

McMillen struggled to make a full pull in the very hot conditions in Bristol. “We’ve got something mechanical going on that we need to figure out,” McMillen continued. “The bumpier tracks are giving us a problem right now.  If you look at all of our runs this weekend and the changes we made – we just got the same results. Norwalk has an all new concrete track, so that should help us there and the weather forecast looks good too. So, maybe everything is working to our favor already.”

The Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals takes place next week in Norwalk, Ohio. Qualifying begins June 21st and final eliminations begin Sunday, June 24th.

North Dinwiddie, Va.(June 10,2018) – Terry McMillen and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ team continue to build towards their best season, posting his third #3 qualifying effort of his career and an opening round win at Virginia Motorsports Park against Terry Haddock. In round two of eliminations, McMillen faced points leader Steve Torrence in a close showdown that found McMillen with the quicker elapsed time but 0.0077 seconds short at the finish line, giving Torrence the hole-shot victory. McMillen’s 3.796 run was the best of eliminations and second best of the event. Torrence’s .071 reaction time to McMillen’s 0.81 was the difference in the race.

“I really hate being on that end of losing,” McMillen said of the loss. “I never saw him (Torrence). I could hear him, but I couldn’t see him. It was just a good old fashion drag race.”

Torrence would go on the win the event.

“Overall it was a good weekend. We got another round win. Our team is performing, Rob Wendland (crew chief) has the car performing, we’re in the thick of things. If we keep performing like we have through these first 10 races we’ll be right where we want to be when the Countdown starts.”

McMillen now has 10 round wins through 10 races in 2018 and three final round appearances in the past seven races, by far the best start of his career. He stays seventh in the standings, moving three points ahead of Brittany Force and just nine points behind Antron Brown.

The next stop on the NHRA tour is the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn. June 15th-June 17th. McMillen qualified third at Bristol in 2012.

TOPEKA, Kan. (May 21, 2018) – Terry McMillen and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel team made the most of a rain delayed race that didn’t complete until Monday. McMillen added Topeka to his final round appearances of the season, which also included Houston and Charlotte.

“It was a long weekend, but a good weekend,” McMillen said of the Monday finale to the Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals.

McMillen qualified sixth and raced past Mike Salinas, Billy Torrence and points leader Steve Torrence before falling to Clay Millican in the final round.

“We came here to win,” McMillen added. “But, it’s hard to be disappointed about the weekend. We’re pretty excited about how we’re doing right now. The wins will come if we can keep putting ourselves in this position. I can’t wait to get back out there and race again. I think Rob (Rob Wendland, Crew Chief) could get this car down a dirt road. Our 60 foot times are getting better, my reaction times are picking up with the better 60 foot times. I really feel like we can make a run at this Championship and the summer months are going to be where we can shine.”

McMillen has won 53% of elimination rounds so far this season and has posted more than twice the round wins through eight races (9 in 2018 vs. 4 in 2017).

“We just need to keep our heads down and keep working hard. Nothing can take you from hero to zero like drag racing.”

The rain delay also made for some interesting ‘watch parties’ on Monday. Amalie executives were able to sign in to NHRA All Access and watch McMillen make his Monday passes. “I can’t say enough about the support that Amalie gives me and this team,” McMillen said. “Seeing the photo of them all gathered in the conference room cheering us on is a real inspiration to me and this team.”

McMillen’s next stop on the NHRA Mello Yello tour is the Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Joliet, Ill. May 31 – June 3rd.

Before heading to the Chicago area, McMillen will try his hand at circle track racing on Friday May 24th at the Kalamazoo Speedway during the Lane Automotive night. McMillen and the XTERMIGATOR will also make an appearance at the Lane Automotive Car Show on May 25th in Watervliet, Mich.

CONCORD, N.C. (April 30, 2018) – Terry McMillen backed up his Houston runner up finish last week by posting a final quad appearance at the NHRA Four Wide Nationals. The final quad appearance matched McMillen’s performance at the same event last season. After posting the fastest 330ft time in the finals, McMillen would begin to spin the tires and slow to a third place finish.

The AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel team also reset their career best mile per hour twice during qualifying and posted there best qualifying position of the season at #5.. His new career best is now 329.75 MPH. McMillen’s performance over the past two races have put him into eighth in the point standings, just 10 points from being tied for sixth.

“We’re in the hunt,” McMillen said after his second final round loss in a row. “If we keep putting ourselves in this position, sooner or later we have to start collecting some more hardware. The gator is chomping, we’re hungry. If we just keep doing what we’re doing, get a few rounds every race, we can really put ourselves in position to make a run at this Championship.”

Next week the team heads for the NHRA Southern Nationals at the Atlanta Dragway, May 4-6. “We learned a lot about greasy tracks these past two races,” McMillen said. “We’re going into Atlanta  expecting more or the same. I think Rob (Wendland, Crew Chief) has a good handle on that tuneup given the results we’ve seen these past two weeks. It’s time for us to gator-done”.

BAYTOWN, Tex. (April 22, 2018) – Terry McMillen and his AMALIE® Motor Oil XTERMIGATOR® Top Fuel team raced their way to the final round at the NHRA SpringNationals near Houston, Texas. McMillen’s quest for his second win ended when Brittany Force posted a 3.762 pass at 299.46 to McMillen’s 3.818 at 311.56.

McMillen returned to Houston and tamed the right lane that collected and destroyed his car just two years earlier. His trip to the final round saw every pass in the right lane. “It’s still a very tricky lane,” McMillen said. “The car gets down there and wants to bounce around a lot. Normally I’d say there’s nothing about that I like, but it was good for us today. Rob (Wendland, Crew Chief) figured out how to finesse this hotrod down through there.”

“It was a great weekend for us,” McMillen said. “It didn’t end the way we wanted, but I’d take Rob and this crew into battle against anyone.”

“We were trying to do a little better in the final round,” McMillen said. “We’ve still got a tricky clutch disc we’re trying to get a better handle on.”

It was McMillen’s fourth career final round appearance and his third in the past 14 races. “I think we’re really starting to see how well this team has come together,” McMillen said. “We’re out here and just about every other team out here is either a multi-car team or aligned with someone or another. I’m super proud of our team and we’re getting more and more confident that we can hang with any of them on any given Sunday.”

McMillen and team now head to Charlotte for the second Four- Wide event of the year at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals April 28-30.

LAS VEGAS (April 8, 2018) – After earning his first NHRA win last October in Las Vegas, Terry McMillen and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ team had high hopes for a repeat this weekend at the Spring event. However the team fell short in the opening round of the first 4-Wide race at The Strip at Las Vegas.

“We’re getting better, we’re just not where we want to be right now,” a disappointed McMillen said after his first round loss. “We missed a great opportunity today to make a move up the points ladder, it just didn’t work out the we had planned.”

McMillen remains tenth in points after the fourth race of the season. “We just had a few small gremlins that kept us chasing our tails a little bit this weekend,” McMillen continued.

Although the race didn’t turn out how McMillen had hoped, he was impressed with many things. “If you look at this weekend, I think it was a big success for everyone involved with the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series,” McMillen said. “There were sell out crowds on both Saturday and Sunday. Bruton Smith and the staff at the drag strip did an outstanding job in preparing the inaugural 4-Wide event. The track was amazing. I think it was much better than any of us had expected. We have to say thanks to them, the NHRA and the fans for all of the support, It was a great weekend in that aspect.”

McMillen and team are looking forward to their next opportunity to race April 20-22 at the NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston, Texas

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 19, 2018) – Terry McMillen and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel team, led by crew chief Rob Wendland, reset their career best mile per hour for the second time this season at 328.46MPH. The annual east coast opener for NHRA also saw McMillen and team earn another career first; bonus points for quickest elapsed times in back-to back session when they posted the third and second quickest times of the third and fourth qualifying sessions.

McMillen qualified eighth for Sunday eliminations and went on to defeat Scott Palmer in a close opening round match-up with a 3.763e.t. to Palmer’s 3.777e.t. With McMillen’s starting line advantage the margin of victory (MOV) was 0.0315 seconds. McMillen’s opening round run not only reset his career best MPH but was also the third fastest winning elapsed time of the opening round – giving McMillen lane choice over his friendly rival Clay Millican for the round two match up. Millican posted a 3.758 to McMillen’s losing effort of 3.831. The losing elapsed time was forth fastest of the second round.

“Rob (Wendland) and I talked about it going into round two,” McMillen said. We thought a 3.79 or 3.80 would win it that round. The sun came out and it was getting pretty greasy out there. The pair in front of us had just smoked the tires in both lanes, so we wanted to make sure we could get down through there. Dave Grubnic (Millican’s crew chief) took a shot at it and made it stick – they just kicked our butts. There’s not a lot we can do except take our hats off to them and go back out there and get them next time. If we rolled the cars back up there again we wouldn’t have done anything different.”

“It was really a good weekend for us,” McMillen continued. “We proved we can be a top three or four car pretty much every session. We’re going to keep picking away at it and keep getting better and win another one of these races.”

With the round win, McMillen moved back into the tenth spot in the point standings and is four points ahead of where he was after Gainesville last season.

“There’s a lot of season left and a lot of rounds left to be raced,” McMillen said. “We’re not going away. This gator is going to keep chomping.”

The 2018 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season continues with the DENSO Spark Plug NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway April 6-8 in Las Vegas.