Clay Millican can still remember the exact day and the hour of his NHRA Top Fuel debut.

Sporting a unique Chicago White Sox-backed livery that spring afternoon back in 1998, Millican distinctly remembers the blur of faces in the grandstands and the sound of his nitro-powered engine when it roared to life for the first time. Though he failed to qualify that afternoon, placing his machine 25th out of 26 cars in a race won by Kenny Bernstein, Millican fondly recalls the feeling of finally seeing his dream come to life.

So it was no surprise when Millican crossed the finish line first at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK Performance at Route 66 Raceway on Sunday, a flood of emotions washed over the veteran racer.

“My wife Donna convinced me to quit my job,” Millican recalls. “I thought she had lost her mind, but I did it anyway because I wasn’t going to say no to taking the opportunity to chase this dream. She was like, ‘If you are ever going to do it, you are going to do it now.’ Peter Lehman gave me the opportunity and 20 years later I won here. Now, here we are 25 years later and we did it again. I almost lost it at the top end, but I held it together. What a day.”

Millican collected his fourth career Wally trophy, and his second at the Chicago-area facility, with a win over Josh Hart. In a race that saw the drivers trade the lead multiple times in a sub-four-second tilt, it was Millican that came out on top as he drove his Parts Plus dragster to a 3.801-second pass at 328.94 mph to earn his first win since 2018. Hart, meanwhile, settled for the runner-up position with an equally strong 3.808 at 324.28 mph. The margin of victory was a scant five feet.

With eight runner-up finishes between his last win five years ago and Sunday's, Millican has kept his head up and brought a positive attitude with him every step of the way, something he has become known for on the professional tour.

“I am eat up with this stuff. I love it,” Millican said. “People notice when I get out of the car, even when I lose, I have a smile on my face. At the end of the day, I still get to drive a Top Fuel car whether I win or lose -- and I get paid to do it. Why get out and kick the car or throw the helmet? I am still fortunate. I love the people that make this all happen. And I love this place, it is special.”

Adding to the emotional day, Millican’s win was the first for new team owner Rick Ware after he purchased the team from Doug Stringer prior to last year's U.S. Nationals. Since that acquisition, the team has struggled to get up and running, with Millican failing to win a single round this season until his surprise victory Sunday.

“Rick wanted to go drag racing in the worst way, and I am so thankful for those guys keeping us out here,” Millican said. “After Rick took over, next thing you know it is new trailers, new racecars, new parts, and you would think it would have been much easier, but it wasn’t. We have really struggled.

“Here we are, six races in, and we haven’t won a round. But if you are going to put the struggle bus in the ditch, the way to do it is leave with a Wally, and that is what we did today. I cannot wait to hand Rick and Lisa Ware that Wally. They did so much to keep us out here.”

As with most racing operations going through a slide, some of the team’s struggles have been unfairly placed on crew chief Jim Oberhofer, but Millican was quick to point out that he wouldn’t be where he is today without him.

“One thing about (Jim) is that he is brutally honest,” Millican said. “If he is struggling, he tells you. I cannot wait to see all of the comments we have been getting on YouTube bashing Jim O. Jim O is a bad dude and he proved it today. I think people forget that he has been there, done that a lot. He had a few struggles and I think he has that behind him now.”

Millican, who struggled in placing his machine 11th on the ladder in qualifying, advanced past Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta in the opening rounds Sunday. With renewed confidence, Millican recorded a couple of gems with laps of 3.732 at 333.42 and 3.797 at 328.22 mph, respectively.

In the semifinal, Millican left first on reigning Top Fuel champion Brittany Force and never relinquished that lead in reaching his first final round since February of last year. Millican had a 3.778 at 329.58 in picking up the win, while Force had a 3.881 at 319.82 as she began to drop cylinders at the top end of the track.

Hart reached his first final round of the season with wins over Antron Brown, Jacob McNeal and T.J. Zizzo.

After the win, Millican reflected on what his team has meant to him through the ups and downs of this season and a winless streak that was beginning to approach triple-digit races. And with a young crew behind him, Millican was glad to be able to win, not just for himself, but for them -- a first for many of them.

“We’ve got these young people that have been with us three or four years. They didn’t really have much experience, but they just go,” Millican said. “It is an incredible group of people. They haven’t won a Wally and when we won the semifinals they were pretty excited, but they calmed down and said we aren’t done yet. We are just different. We treat every person on this team like they mean something. They have been amazing.”