Clay Millican has gone from NHRA fan favorite to first time national event winner and now a legitimate contender to win the Top Fuel world championship this season.

Millican, who pilots the Parts Plus/Great Clips dragster, sent a message to the field Friday at the Dodge Nationals with his top-spot grabbing 3.699-second lap at 327.27 mph at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa.

“What’s funny is Grubby (David Grubnic) our tuner was highly disappointed in that run, believe it or not,” Millican said. “The car should have gone 3.67, that’s what he was looking for and he’s very good at picking his number, what the car is going to run. He’d be a heck of a bracket racer, but I have to tell you, I knew it was a good run. We have intended on going No. 1 in the first session. Grubby is going to push every run. We want every bonus point we possibly can get. I do know we have nine bonus points now and Doug Kalitta has 10, so we have to make those points and we have to go rounds. Our car is going to be pushed every single lap.”

Millican arrived at the Dodge Nationals in sixth place in the point standings –

63 behind leader Doug Kalitta. This is the second race in the six race Countdown to the Championship.

“Grubby is so versatile with his setup and how he runs the car and we have shown the last two months or so, that it doesn’t matter if it is cool or hot our car can be at the top of the page,” Millican said. “Brainerd was obviously very cool outside and went the second and third quickest runs in history and we went to Indy and qualified No. 1 and then we ran good here. I hope it is really hot (Saturday) and we stay No. 1, that’s a big deal because we are short a car. We want to stay No. 1 and we will push (Saturday).”

In the first session, Millican acknowledged his team also was swinging for the fences, but slowed to 4.950 seconds.

“On the first run, we were on the top of the page (with all the other runs) at 60 foot and 330 and we just got a little too aggressive,” Millican said. “When it got the tires loose, it was disappointing, but not completely surprising because we are pushing the limits of the race track every run and we’re going to do that all the way through the Countdown. It’s so close out there, these cars are so tightly bunched together that you hat to and Grubby is pushing every single run.”