Perhaps David Grubnic should play the lottery.

The ace crew chief, known for his uncanny ability to make nitro-fueled machines run deadly accurate, bracket-like numbers, left even his longtime friend and driver Clay Millican speechless with his performance on Friday.

Pulling into the staging lanes seeking yet another Millican/Grubnic chart topper Friday at the 31st annual Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway, Grubnic leaned down and matter-of-factly told his veteran driver that the car, “should go 70,” good enough for the top spot. What came next was yet another perfect pass for the hottest team in Top Fuel.

“At the very last moment Grubby leans in the car and said it ‘should go 70’ and it went 70 with a zero,” said Millican, who currently sits second in the championship standings. “When I got back I told him, ‘you were dead on with a zero’ and he looks at me like I have two heads. It was bracket racing. He hit his number with a zero.

“It was an incredible run. Whenever the crew chief can tell you what the car is going to do and does it then he is a happy guy and we are happy when he is happy because he makes all of the bells and whistles work and everything is good.”

Millican topped the field with an aforementioned 3.700-second pass at 327.98 mph in the Parts Plus/Great Clips machine after two of four qualifying sessions as he seeks his seventh No. 1 of of the season and 17th of his career.

“I hope it is 90 degrees tomorrow,” Millican said with a laugh. “It is always really, really cool. I have done this six times at the moment, and that doesn’t mean someone won’t run quicker tomorrow, but I keep saying these No. 1 qualifiers are awesome because it means we have the quickest car here at the moment, but we want to turn that into wins. We’ve got a heck of a season going and this team is just amazing. The kids out of the nitro barn just do an amazing job and I am proud I get to stomp on that loud pedal for them”

Leah Pritchett was second quickest on day one in Sonoma, driving the Palomar dragster to a 3.727 at 328.38 mph. Antron Brown was third with a 3.744 at 327.43 mph, while Tony Schumacher (3.747) and Brittany Force (3.752) round out the top five.

It was a very quick session for all of the drivers in the nitro categories as a return to more hospitable air after last week’s stop in Denver leant itself to faster times and another quick run for Millican and his team.

“With the way that our car has ran all year, when I see other cars going quick I think this is going to be fun because I know that we can go quicker,” Millican said. “It is nice having that confidence that we have a car that pretty much, when Grubby needs to, can push it and put those kinds of numbers up. He has done it time and time again and we want to keep riding that wave while it is there.”