​​​Terry McMillen’s breakthrough semifinal finish at Sonoma was a huge and timely boost to his Countdown chances. And proving last weekend's epic performance was no fluke, he pulled off a monster takedown of point leader Steve Torrence in the first round and drove his way to the final round, before losing a tough one to Antron Brown.  

McMillen’s crew chief, Rob Wendland, headed into Seattle confident his driver could hold onto his No. 8 position in the standings for this race and the remaining two before the Countdown field is closed.

“I mean, basically it’s just us staying square with what we’re doing right now,” Wendland said. “We’re just trying to race smart, and as long as we keep doing that, I think we stand a fair chance. I think our performance is there, and I think it helps us a little bit maybe when the tracks are a little hotter. It kind of evens the playing field a little bit. I don’t think at this point right now we can afford to make the big horsepower because of the parts attrition that it takes to do that.”

Perhaps this race is coming at exactly the right time, when a lot of teams haven’t figured out the hot tracks.

“Yeah, perfect for us,” Wendland said. “But it’s also perfect for Scott [Palmer], and I don’t know about the Kalitta cars. They’re pretty gung-ho right now. You know, this is right down our alley. We can get down some slick mess because it doesn’t take a whole bunch of horsepower to do that. It takes finesse. Scott’s been on a lot of tracks that aren’t necessarily known for traction and stuff like that. So we all have a pretty good idea of what it takes to slip-slide down through there. I may be wrong, but in years past when we’ve seen the sun like this on this particular race track, it tends to fall off more so than it does other tracks.”

The McMillen team certainly is keeping an eye on Palmer but also has to be concerned that No. 11 Shawn Langdon, the 2013 champion, powering up through the middle of the pack.

“I think Scott has a great relationship with the Capco car. I know that they help him quite a bit. So I think each one of them at any time can turn around and give us a hell of a battle,” Wendland said. “Right now we’re in this dog fight. And I’m not giving up. It’s just intense. But I’ve learned over the years, working for Don [Schumacher] and [John] Force and these guys, you don’t get tangled up in that points system. Just go out there and do the best job at what you can. Be positive about your judgement, judgement calls on tuneups. Don’t tune your car from somebody else’s mistakes out on the track. Do what you know.”

Scott Garwood – “The Legacy Coach” who has built a career “solving the hidden challenges unique to high-profile and highly successful individuals” – is someone Wendland said “does bring out the best in you about being positive about your judgement calls and all these different things. He helped me in 2012, and he came over to Johnny Gray.He has helped Matt Hagan you know with his lights, having this positive awareness of who I am on the starting line and believing in yourself and all these kinds of things. And Johnny Gray says, ‘Hey, you ain’t going to teach this old dog a new trick. It ain’t going to happen. You’re just barking up the wrong tree.’ And I said, ‘You should be helping the crew chiefs. They’re the guys that have to make all the decisions and have the pressure’. And he goes, ‘OK. I’ll help you.’ So starting then, it’s like we went on this streak. And I just saw him last weekend, and I thanked him again. Here we are, six years later, and I think about [his advice] all the time: You know, take a deep breath, be confident in your decisions, walk straight and tall, push your chest out, and just tell them to get out of the way because here you come.”