Say this for Clay Millican, he’s not going down this season without a fight to win his first NHRA Top Fuel world title.

Millican, who pilots the Parts Plus/Great Clips dragster, entered the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals near Dallas second in, 70 behind Steve Torrence.

Millican did try to gain some ground on the hard-charging Torrence by capturing the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot with a 3.726-second time at 328.54 mph during Friday’s second qualifying session.

Torrence is second in the qualifying ladder at 3.781 seconds at 328.14 mph.

“To be honest, we typically have a really good idea of what the car is going to run,” Millican said. “That’s all gone out the window since the Countdown started, to be honest with you. What he (crew chief David Grubnic) tells me is 'I can’t tell you exactly what we are going to run'. The reason he tells me is so I know what the car should feel like. How much acceleration and that sort of thing. Now all he tells me is do the best you can to listen to everybody else and we’re going to do whatever we can to get those three points.”

Millican then took a moment to describe his blistering lap.

“Part way through that run I think the No. 1 is like (3) 77 or 78, and I was like this doesn’t feel like a 76,” Millican said. “That was a little surprising to me. I joke about this, but all the drivers do get a chance to take a peak at the scoreboard and I called on the radio and said, ‘I don’t think I saw what was on the scoreboard.’ I really didn’t think we were going to go 72. What David Grubnic is doing right now is just totally impressive, unbelievable. When we leave the shop, the only thing left there is the drill press and a band saw. Everything we have got is in the trailer. It ain’t a lot, but it runs good. I was kind of shocked no one else (ran quicker). We are No. 1 with three (bonus) points and who knows what the weather will give us (Saturday). If it is hot again (that time) will probably be safe, but I think we have runs at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. (CT) and we could catch some clouds and who knows that may not stay No. 1, but most importantly there were six bonus points available (Friday) and we go those and Steve got two, so it was a net gain of a little bit and we need every point we can get because he keep extending the points lead on us.”

Millican said his team is trying to do what it does best in the Countdown, not try and do something way out of the norm.

“You talking to a guy who just went 3.72 and he honestly keeps talking about no hero runs,” he said. “I’m not doing it. We’ve had the hero runs. The monster, booming runs and he keeps telling me because he is really telling himself no hero runs. No ego. Three points, that’s Grubnic’s mindset right now. I would say he’s in another gear because I know inside of him he’s like ‘we can go better than we just ran.’ But, he’s controlling that to get three points, two or one point. The most important thing to him right now is trying to make up that gap between us and Steve (Torrence). We need round wins, but these little points do add up.”