Just when the door was closing on any chance of winning a championship for Clay Millican, the fan favorite Top Fuel driver kicked it open Sunday.

Millican powered his way to the Midwest Nationals victory before a sold-out crowd at World Wide Technology Raceway. He clocked a 3.758-second elapsed time at 331.94 mph to defeat Leah Pruett’s 3.775, 327.66.

“Man, what a day,” Millican said. “It's huge (to get this win). For the last week, we have been watching the weather because Jimbo (Oberhofer, his crew chief) has been dangerous when it's hot. Chicago was hot. Denver's always just ... it is Denver. It was like the man upstairs was looking out for us, and He gave us a hot weekend. Man, Jimbo just showed again when it's hot out, look out. I don't know what he's doing. It doesn't matter because I don't know how to tune one of these things, but I can tell you this. If it's hot, he can get down. I mean, we got away with one, actually, probably kind of sort of two. But we outperformed the cars we raced, and I am so proud.”

Millican moved from 11th to eighth place in the points standings – 152 points behind leader Doug Kalitta. Millican is only 28 points behind sixth place Mike Salinas.

“I'm going to do this without tearing up, but my sisters are here again, and my longest, best friend that might as well be my brother, we literally have been attached at the hip from before first grade (is here). I can never get him to leave Drummonds, Tenn., but we got him up here, and he's down in the winner's circle right now. That was huge for me.”

This was Millican’s sixth career NHRA national event win and third this season to go with Chicago and Denver. This was Millican’s first career NHRA national-event win in St. Louis. Millican, who made his NHRA Top Fuel debut in 1998, also won a Countdown event for the first time.

The crazy trend for Millican this season is he seemingly loses in the first round or wins the race. Millican has an 18-15 elimination-round record in 2023, and 12 of those wins came in the three wins. He has 11 first-round losses, including at the two previous races in Reading, Pa., and Charlotte, N.C., to Pruett and Brittany Force, respectively.

On Sunday, Millican mowed down Austin Prock, Salinas, Tony Schumacher and then Pruett in the third race of the six-race Countdown to the Championship.

“I mean, I think my biggest worry was actually Round One because that's the best temperature of the day. And I don't know what he (Jimbo Oberhofer ) is doing to make it work on the hot tracks, but obviously it's not working on
the cold tracks. And we've suffered when it's been a little cool outside,” Millican said. “He'll get it figured out, and then we'll be winning on hot and
cold racetracks, but I am already talking to the man upstairs. Bring on the heat in Dallas, baby.”

The next race on the circuit is the Texas NHRA Fallnationals, Oct. 12-15, in Dallas.

“Our chances of winning the championship, we know that's (probably) not happening,” Millican said. “I am the world's worst at keeping up with the points. I don't ever know who we're racing until we're in the staging lanes. All I ever want to know in qualifying is, ‘Are we in?’ And if we're not, I need to know what number we need to run.

“My running joke with that is if I was driving Rick Ware's 51 car [in the NASCAR Cup Series] and I could do a bump and run, then I would care. But our goal is obviously top 10 as far as we possibly can get. It is probably way too big a gap to even think about chasing down No. 1. But three wins for this Parts Plus team was huge. I mean, it was an incredible fricking day.”

When Millican faced off with Pruett he was keeping things in perspective.

“A lot of drivers are just going to tell you, ‘I'm going up there and I'm going to rip their heads off. I'm going to do all this sort of stuff,’” Millican said. “In my mind, I am the smiling guy and win, lose or draw, I'm smiling. Because I know I'm fortunate to get to do what I do. My mindset going into a final round is no matter what happens, we've had a great day. Whether that makes me better or worse, I don't know, but that's how I'm built. Anytime you can make a final round, it's a good day. Win or lose.”

Millican said he received a call from Ware, his team owner, after his victory that choked him up.

“Y'all know I'll cry at the drop of a hat, but he was so pumped up,” Millican said. “He's at Talladega right now watching both of [his] NASCAR teams run.

“I don't know what's going to happen when we win one when he's here, but, I mean, he might go out there and tear the tree down, I don't know. But I can tell you he's pumped up because that's a guy who makes his living racing, and he's given us the parts, pieces, equipment and the people -- which is the most important thing -- that make this thing go.”