BAYTOWN, Tex. (April 23, 2017) – After a spectacular explosion and crash during the 2016 NHRA SpringNationals, Terry McMillen driver of the AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel Dragster was as happy as one could expect after a relatively close, but uneventful loss to Doug Kalitta in the opening round of the 2017 race contested this weekend.

“All in all it was a pretty good weekend,” McMillen explained. “We got a little behind in our qualifying efforts on Friday. It was good to get that first pass down the right lane behind us. We had a little issue with the number 5 intake on that pass and for just a second that thought runs through your mind – ‘here we go again’, but all of the adjustments that Rob Wendland and this crew has made did their job and everything came back in one piece. I knew everything was going to be O.K. after that.”

“Our motor has never been this happy,” McMillen continued. “Everything is right that needs to be right. We’ve just got to make it (the engine) manageable. It’s a monster right now.”

In the first round of eliminations McMillen was able to take a starting line advantage with a .071 second reaction time to Kalitta’s .093 seconds. McMillen made his quickest pass of the weekend with a 3.833 to Kalitta’s 3.761.

“We knocked the porcelain off of one of the spark plugs 3.3 seconds into the run,” McMillen explained. “We might have run a 79 (3.79 seconds) – probably not enough to catch Doug (Kalitta) on that run – but we could have made it an even closer race than it already was.”

“We made a lot of new friends in Houston. It almost felt like Gainesville with all of the friends and fans that came to see us. Of course we would have liked to gone more rounds and won the race – but we’ve got some things figured out for Charlotte and I’m really looking forward to the Four-Wides.”

McMillen remains ninth in points after the Houston event – just eight points behind Troy Coughlin Jr.

The next stop on the NHRA Mello Yello tour is the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 28-30. For more information visit NHRA.com

LAS VEGAS (April 2, 2017) – Terry McMillen and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel team defeated Troy Coughlin, Jr. in the opening round of the Denso Sparkplugs NHRA Nationals to move up to ninth in points after four races. McMillen fell to Tony Schumacher in a close round two match up.

McMillen pedaled his hotrod to catch Counghlin, Jr. at the stripe in a narrow .009 second margin of victory. Crew Chief Rob Wendland told NHRA, “Terry got that one for us. He did a great job catching it and staying in it. Sure proud of him.” The pedal job was something veteran driver McMillen was anticipating. “I could tell by the way that we were going through the clutch early that it may need a quick slap of the pedal, so I was kind of waiting for it. I knew we were far enough down the track and we were close enough that if Troy had any issues we would be there. I’m certainly glad that it worked out for us.”

McMillen and Wendland took a gamble coming into Vegas by introducing a new and untested clutch system with consultation from Johnny West of Wesco. Wendland explained to NHRA, “I already have a 3.70 car. I want a 3.60 car.”

“We saw a lot of improvements on each run,” McMillen explained. “We thought about switching back to the system that had us running like a bracket 3.70s car. But we stuck with it and qualified with a decent 3.82. This is an investment in our future that we think is going to pay like a loose slot machine.”

McMillen posted the fastest time in the right lane for round one and round two and while frustrated, McMillen remained encouraged. “We’re getting a little tired of being the fastest loser,” McMillen explained. “We’re working on qualifying a little better and having more fun on Sunday. We used to worry about who we lined up next to on race day. I think the tables are starting to turn. People can’t take us for granted any longer.”

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 19, 2017) – There’s a lot of history at the Gainesville Raceway, host of the AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals, including personal history for Terry McMillen who fell one round short of a victory in 2016. However, McMillen couldn’t recapture the 2016 magic at 48th running of the event this year after losing an opening round matchup with Clay Millican.

“Needless to say we’re a little disappointed,” McMillen said shortly after the loss. “It’s not what we came here to do and I certainly don’t think today is a reflection on the performance improvements our team has made so far this season. We never really figured out the right lane this weekend and we just don’t have a clutch set-up for a tricky lane like that.”

“We just wanted to go one more round than we did last season for our Amalie family,” McMillen continued. “There were so many great friends, customers and employees here this weekend. We just wanted to give them a little more to cheer for on Sunday. We’re still a small team with a big dream and we’ll regroup and head to Vegas and see if we can’t do a little better there.”

The next stop on the NHRA tour is the DENSO Sparkplugs NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas, March 31-April 2. For more information visit NHRA.com

ENNIS, Tex. (October 16, 2016) – Texas is known for having everything just a little bigger and better. Certainly Terry McMillen and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ came to the Texas Motorplex just outside of Dallas with bigger and better expectations.

“We never come to a race to lose,” McMillen explained after his first round loss to Brittany Force. “We’re testing a lot of different things right now and we’re seeing progress in areas, it’s just not showing up on race day yet.”

The best part of McMillen’s weekend was the time spent with sponsors and guests. “We had a great weekend spending time with Rush Truck Centers in our hospitality area,” McMillen said. “Having Mike Besson and Fred Scott here with some of their vendors and clients is a treat for us. On top of that we the hospitality area gave us opportunities to spend some time with Ken Holder from Amalie and Ron Thames from FireAde. It’s always great when you can spend time with them and share what we do out here every week and see the similarities in our businesses.”

McMillen and his AMALIE dragster will be making a special appearance on Wednesday, October 26 from 11AM-2PM at the Tahiti Village in Las Vegas. Tahiti Village is located at 7200 South Las Vegas Blvd. There will also be a special “Happy Hour – meet and greet” at 17 South located inside Tahiti Village with a portion of the proceeds to benefit She4Life.

MADISON, Ill. (September 25, 2016) – This weekend started a little better than last weekend at Charlotte for Terry McMillen and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ team. After their first DNQ of the season in Charlotte, McMillen and team rebounded and qualified in the 13th position for the second race of The Countdown with a 3.895 at 310.41MPH.

“We’re still fighting new clutch discs,” McMillen explained. “We’re getting close to figuring out the combination that it wants for this disc, but we’re still just a tick off. These fuel cars are always right on the edge. It’s a gram of weight or a thousandths of an inch that is the difference between these things wanting to run fast or just smoking the tires. I’m confident our guys will have this closer when we get to Reading.”

McMillen lost in opening round action to Doug Kalitta.

Professional qualifying for the 32nd running of the Dodge NHRA Nationals begins next Friday, September 30th in Reading, Penn.

CONCORD, N.C. (September 17, 2016) – He narrowly missed the NHRA Countdown to the Championship at the last race in Indianapolis by one point. Now, Terry McMillen, driver of the AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel Dragster finds himself 0.006 seconds short of making the field at the NHRA Carolina Nationals.

“Top Fuel is a game of milliseconds,” McMillen explained. “We just can’t catch the break we need right now.”

McMillen’s team struggled as they added new clutch discs to the rotation. “We’re into a new batch of discs and that’s just not something you want to do on a race weekend,” McMillen continued. “The big teams would put this on their clutch dyno or make a bunch of test laps before even thinking about adding a new discs to the mix. We don’t have those options. So, we’re not going to make excuses. We’re just going to suck it up and get this figured out so we can finish strong and get our program headed in the right direction.”

McMillen will be making an appearance at the NHRA FanFest in St. Louis before the event next week. The event is open to the public and will take place on Thursday, September 22nd at the Ballpark Village (near Cardinal Stadium) with an autograph session from 6PM – 7:30PM. The event will include Show Cars, Live Entertainment, Interactive Displays and Prize Drawings.

BROWNSBURG, Ind. (September 5, 2016) – It turned out to be the closest Terry McMillen has been in his career to making the NHRA Countdown to the Championship.The season-long battle left him and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ team just one point shy of his dream to compete for the Championship.

McMillen’s week started on a good note as the “Fan Vote” and lottery style drawing landed him a spot the the TRAXXAS Shootout. The $100,000 race within a had McMillen matched Antron Brown. Brown defeated McMillen in the first round.

“I just want to thank all of the fans that voted for us,” McMillen said. “We never take for granted all of their support and the support they give to the NHRA. It was truly an honor to represent them.”

McMillen faced Clay Millican in the opening round action of the U.S. Nationals and needed to run one more round that Lean Pritchett to earn his way into the Countdown. McMillen would fall to Millican in the opening round, ending McMillen’s dream of racing for the championship.

“I can’t even begin to explain how proud I am of Rob Wendland and this crew,” McMillen explained. “We’ve fought through a lot of adversity to just to be this close. These guys worked and fought valiantly. I wouldn’t trade them for any team out here.”

McMillen’s 2016 quest began with round wins in all of the first three races including a final round appearance at the AMALIE Motor Oil Gatornationals that took him as high as fifth in the points standings. A blower explosion in Houston changed the course of the season for McMillen as the team fought to find a consistent tuneup for the new chassis. Things began to change for the better as McMillen set a new career best in Topeka with a 3.762. But in the end, it turned out to be just a little short.

“It’s extremely hard to compete week in and week out with these mega powerhouse teams that are out here,” McMillen added.. “I still believe that persistence outweighs resistance. Our dream didn’t die here today in Indy. We’re still a small team with a big dream. We’ll battle back, reset goals and work the plan. Right now that plan is to finish the season strong and ruin the day of any contender we face on race day.”

BRAINERD, Minn. (August 21, 2016) – Terry McMillen and his AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ team just added a little drama for the upcoming U.S. Nationals Labor Day weekend in Indianapolis. His first round upset of Steve Torrence here in Brainerd tied him for 10th place in the NHRA points standings with Leah Pritchett. McMillen posted a 3.793 – seconds elapsed time to Torrence’s 3.855 – seconds.

“What a day,” McMillen told NHRA.com. “Leah has a top-five car, and she’s a great driver. We’re going to try to keep this thing going and get that lead.”

The first round run against Torrence proved costly as McMillen damaged the team’s best supercharger. “We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing and be somewhat aggressive,” Wendland told NHRA.com before their second round matchup with Tony Schumacher. “We changed to a blower that we have no info with, so we’re shooting from the hip on this one. We don’t have time to fix the blower we ran all weekend with. The one we put on is the backup to the backup.”

“We’re just not as deep on inventory as some of these other teams,” McMillen added. “Some of these teams are able to set aside their best parts and bring them out down the stretch. We’ll get everything back to Brownsburg on Tuesday and do whatever we need to do to be ready for Indy. It’s the “Big Go” and we’re in the hunt. You can’t ask for more than that.”

Terry won’t ask for much more than that, but his team will. Voting for the Traxxas Shootout begins today and ends Tuesday August 30th. You can see Terry’s video here: https://youtu.be/2yPBY37I6F8

Fans can vote in the Traxxas Shootout by visiting here: http://woobox.com/4otb2b/hrelzl

KENT, Wash. (August 7, 2016) – Terry McMillen, team owner and driver of the AMALIEⓇ  Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel Dragster missed a golden opportunity to close the points gap between Leah Pritchett and himself for the final spot in The Countdown on Sunday at the NHRA Northwest Nationals near Seattle. McMillen and Pritchett were both eliminated in the first round of competition. Just 19 points separate the two competitors with two races remaining before the Countdown begins.

McMillen made consistent improvements in qualifying and posted an elapsed time 3.792 seconds to qualify 12th in the close and highly competitive Top Fuel field. “We really feel like we have our hotrod back,” McMillen said after falling to Clay Millican in the first round. “We’ve got a car that just wants to go down the track and run in the seventies, we just ran into a fuel system malfunction in the first round that killed our chance to make up some ground.”

“We’re going to go down swinging,” McMillen added. “I’m so proud of the fight in our team. These guys just keep there heads down and they keep working hard to get Rob (Crew Chief Wendland) a consistent race car. Our family, friends and fans deserve an opportunity to race for the championship and we’re going to give it everything we have to make that happen. This is what NHRA Drag Racing is all about.”

The next stop on the NHRA tour August 18-21 at the Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota.

McMillen’s team will also make appearances race week at Goodson Tools and Supplies in Winona, Minnesota on Tuesday and O.K. Tire and Bait on Wednesday in Randall, Minnesota. The public is invited to attend.