Clay Millican and crew chief David Grubnic arrive at Gainesville, Florida, for this weekend’s Amalie NHRA Gatornationals with the quickest Top Fuel dragster in history and the second fastest ever on a 1,000-foot dragstrip.
 
No other dragster has been as consistently quick this year and toward the end of the past Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. The Great Clips/Parts Plus dragster of Stringer Performance has the two quickest runs ever and four of the 10 best.
 
The Stringer Performance team owned by Doug Stringer ended the past season with the NHRA world record time of 3.631 seconds and strengthened its hold on the record at the opening of this year’s season at Pomona, California, with a time of 3.628 seconds to earn the No 1 qualifying spot.
 
At the Arizona Nationals three weeks ago near Phoenix, they qualified third and reached a speed of 335.23 mph that was the fastest ever until six pairs later when Tony Schumacher reached 336.57.
 
“We were the fastest ever for about 20 minutes,” said Millican, who lives in Drummonds, Tennessee. “At least we left the track as the quickest in history.”
 
Millican ranks third in bonus points behind leader Steve Torrence and Schumacher so it’s evident qualifying isn’t an issue. But the team is only 2-2 in elimination rounds.
 
“Our performance has been very good and we’ve been making power, but we do not plan on continuing to be one-hit wonders,” said Grubnic, who won the Gatornationals title in 2006 after being the No. 1 qualifier the previous two years for Kalitta Motorsports.
 
After advancing to the semifinals at Pomona, they didn’t get out of the first round at Wild Horse Motorsports Park at the last event.
 
“We had good performance toward the end of last year. We just have to find some consistency on Sunday’s. Grubby will find it,” said Millican,, who was inducted into NHRA’s Division 2 Southeast Division Hall of Fame early this year.
 
 “Our car has been unbelievably quick, so we know Grubby has found some power,” said Millican, who won his only NHRA title last year at Bristol, Tennessee, and qualified No. 1 five times.
 
The Great Clips/Parts Plus team operates uniquely. The team works out of a 50,000-square-foot shop behind Stringer’s house in McLeansboro, Illinois, a quiet hamlet of about 3,000 residents that is 300 miles south of Chicago.
 
When Millican and Stringer decided to start a full-time team for the 2015 season, they headed south of the equator to land Australian Grubnic as their crew chief.
 
The next addition was former Kalitta crewman Mac Savage, as their car chief. He had retired from the sport for about a year and moved to near Columbus, Ohio, where his wife was pursuing her career. He started with Stringer at the U.S. Nationals in 2016.
 
What is unique is that Grubnic continues to live in Bozeman, Montana, where he works full time as a financial planner, Millican remains in Tennessee and Savage in Ohio.
 
The crew of Matt Covault (superchargers/ignition, Billy Payne (cylinder heads), Justin Groat  (clutch), Chris Estep (clutch/tires), Nick Falcon (piston/rods and top-end service), Zach Templeton (blocks/heads) and Skylar Blades (short blocks/bottom end) share two houses provided Stringer in McCleansboro.
 
Of that group, only Payne and Covault are older than 30.
 
“They’re either local from around the shop or came up to the rope in the pits and gave us a resume,” Millican said. “Most had never worked on a nitro car so Grubby, and Mac have been able to teach them to do their jobs the way they want them done.”
 
Savage added, “We’re so fortunate to have our guys. Each one would be a standout on another team. We have seven guys in the shop working together every day, and then they live together in housing Doug provides. They’re two hours from a major city and not being 50 feet away from each other most of the time. That could be a challenge, but they treat each other like a brother, and they work with precision.”
 
“We always brag about these young guys – I call them kids,” said Millican, who like Grubnic and Savage are in their 50s.
 
“They went last year and so far this season without making a mistake that forces us to abort a run. No big mistakes made which is incredible.”