Well, that was unexpected.

After struggling throughout testing and failing to produce the kind of numbers expected of the current national record holder in Top Fuel in the days leading up to this weekend, Clay Millican and the Stringer Performance Top Fuel team surprised even themselves with the provisional No. 1 spot Friday at the season-opening Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals presented by ProtectTheHarvest.com at Auto Club Raceway.

Millican, piloting a brand-new Don Schumacher Racing chassis, placed the Great Clips/Parts Plus dragster atop the ladder with a chart-topping 3.694-second pass at 327.74 mph, all after more than a dozen testing passes the weekend prior left the team less-than-confident entering this weekend.

“The honest truth is, I’m just glad I got to drive the car to the finish line,” an ecstatic Millican said moments after climbing from his machine. “We made 15 runs in testing and didn’t see what we wanted to see out of the car and today we never intended to go to the finish line. It was the first full lap on a brand new car and I was so ready to lift off the throttle, but I was like ‘hey, we are going down the track.’ That’s all Grubby (David Grubnic) and the way he runs the car. He runs it 100 percent.

“We were fantastic in testing last year and we sucked at Pomona so we planned on reversing the roles and, while it was only one run, so far it looks like we may have done just that.”

Millican unseated the quickest driver from session one - Antron Brown - with the only pass in the 3.60s on Friday. Brown finished the day second with a 3.717 at 332.51 mph, followed by Steve Torrence in third with a 3.726 at 326.40 mph. Doug Kalitta (3.729) and Tony Schumacher (3.732) round out the top five.

“Pretty much our trouble spot so far this year has been the 150-foot area and to be honest, once it went past that area, once we got past the 250-foot mark and came up on 330, I knew we were off and running,” Millican said. “Honestly, I did not expect to run a 3.69 because we had not made a full run. But (Grubnic) doesn’t mess around. This team, they never got down and out. You make 15 runs and don’t see what you want to see out of it and it’s easy to get down about it. But that didn’t happen.

“He tried a lot of things in testing and, while we didn’t have the results, he kept saying, ‘just let me keep working what I am doing.’ But it was also only one run. To quote Grubby, ‘once is an anomaly.’ It may do it again, but it was nice to pull the parachutes.”

After a career year in 2017, one that included a first-ever Wally and five top qualifier awards, Millican is hoping to build on that success and continue his upward trajectory.

“I knew it was a pretty good run,” Millican said. “But I honestly think that run will nowhere near hold up, but I also believe in Grubby enough that I believe we will go quicker as well.

“For now it is another green at the moment. But I’m looking for that yellow hat. I’ve got a Wally at home that’s lonely, he needs a brother.”