Clay Millican doesn’t mince words.
While Monday’s results will say Millican topped the Top Fuel final over Steve Torrence to win at the 70th U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, he affirmed that he and his Rick Ware Racing team weren’t feeling comfortable initially during qualifying.
“If you just watched us through qualifying, going into session No. 5, it’s like, ‘We may not even make the show,’” Millican recalled. “We were sweating bullets to be honest with you.”
Millican, however, made the show and slotted in 13th out of the 16 drivers.
Making the show was all he needed.
From there, Millican, aboard a red-and-white Arby’s-sponsored dragster, executed four flawless runs down IRP’s 1,000-foot dragstrip in front of countless fans to score an exuberant triumph in drag racing’s biggest race.
It was his first career Wally at the Big Go.
While Millican is known to be more outspoken in the NHRA pits, he admitted the triumph at Indy was a different story.
“I am just speechless to be honest with you,” Millican beamed. “Y’all know I’ll keep talking anyway because I like talking. Especially when it comes to drag racing. This whole team… today was one of those days where the only thing that could go wrong was if I did something wrong.
“The car was so good. I was told over and over again, ‘Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. It’s just one more step. No matter what’s going on, no matter how beat down you are, can you make one more step?’
“And we made one more step into the winner’s circle of the U.S. Nationals.”
That extra step earned Millican a fourth Wally with RWR in the last two years, and the first with team owner Rick Ware in attendance.
Millican wasn’t the favorite to win the prestigious race on Monday afternoon. He arguably hasn’t been the favorite to win at any event during this NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
However, Millican feels his humble roots and background are what has helped propel him into a winning race car driver at drag racing’s highest level.
“You’re looking at a guy that’s been an underdog his whole life,” Millican smiled. “I grew up in Drummonds, Tennessee, I worked in a little bitty mom and pop grocery store. Then I was silly enough to go to work at a food warehouse and I worked there for 11 years.
“A guy named Peter Lehman bought into my dream and me and Bobby Bennett (have) been up and down the road for a long time since then.
“I am living proof that if you want something bad enough, you can make it happen,” Millican continued. “Sometimes you gotta want it more than breathing. But, underdog mentality, I don’t know about that. But I definitely have been the underdog my entire life, I promise you that.
“I got a lot of fight in me, I ain’t scared.”
Millican is set to bring that same underdog fight into the Countdown to the Championship, where he’s sixth in the standings heading into the Sept. 18 event at Pennsylvania’s Maple Grove Raceway.