Greg Carrillo is ready for the high-altitude challenge of the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals July 15-17 in Morrison, Colo., just outside Denver.

Carrillo will make his 2022 season debut at Bandimere Speedway in his Top Fuel dragster which is sponsored by Santiago’s Mexican Restaurant, a franchised based in Colorado.

Santiago’s Green Chile is sold at King Soopers, Safeway, and Walmart across Colorado. Carrillo’s team is based in Fort Morgan, Colo., which is 90 minutes from Bandimere Speedway, which has an elevation of 5,800 feet.

“Well, I think we know what to do there,” said Carrillo, a veteran Sportsman racer at Bandimere Speedway before transitioning to Top Fuel a few years ago. “We ran good there last year, and we have talent, and we have the same people with us. We have all the same everything. All we have to do is make no mistakes. I also can’t thank Santiago’s enough, they have been helping us for years.”

Carrillo, who last competed at the 2021 U.S. Nationals, will have veterans Aaron Brooks and Glenn Mikres tuning his dragster and the team is running the six-disc clutch.

With Brooks and Mikres tuning for him at the 2021 Mile-High Nationals, Carrillo qualified No. 6 and then upset world champion Antron Brown, clocking a 3.860-second time to upend Brown’s 4.046-second effort.

Carrillo advanced to face Mike Salinas where he had a solid 3.907-second run, just losing to Mike Salinas’ 3.866-second performance.

“Last year, we did good,” Carrillo said. “Then, before we raced Salinas, we had a little mistake in the pits and we dropped a hole in the run, but we just barely lost to him. We have what everybody else has and there’s no excuses over here for us (this year at the Mile-High Nationals). We just have to do better.

“It made sense for us (to make our debut this year at the Mile-High Nationals) because of expenses. We’re a low-budget team but when we do go, we expect to run low.”

Carrillo’s team has no immediate plans to compete after the Mile-High Nationals.

“I don’t know, that’s kind of up in the air,” Carrillo said. “We want to see how well we do (at the Mile-High Nationals) and then coming out of COVID, it is trying to figure who has money and who doesn’t and stuff like that.”

Carrillo knows his team needs to put its best foot forward in the Friday night qualifying session at Bandimere Speedway.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “You have to qualify well. Bandimere is the best track for fans, and it puts us on a little bit more of a level playing field because we don’t race the whole time and all those guys don’t race all the time in Denver. I’m ready. We are going to do whatever it takes to win; I can tell you that. There’s no holding back. We have enough parts to run eight times and that’s what we are going to do. If they put it all in the dumpster, that’s fine with me, just as long as we win.

“It’s opening day every time we race. You never know what’s going to happen. That’s why guys do it for so long.”