You know stuff is messed up when Clay Millican misses a qualifying session.
Such was the case at the NHRA 4-Wide Carolina Nationals, where Millican and Rick Ware Racing teammate Tony Schumacher sat out Q4. The move came one day after Millican’s dragster erupted in a violent Q3 engine explosion that sent shrapnel across the track and forced Doug Kalitta to take evasive action.
For Millican, the decision was less about giving up data and more about ensuring his team had a chance to race on Sunday. “Well, you know what? It was the smart thing to do because we didn’t quite know why Tony’s car and my car both had a major issue, explosions, a sneeze, whatever you want to call it,” Millican said. “So knowing we have a problem and not knowing what it was, we needed to take a little bit of extra time and try to figure it out.”
The team thought the culprit might be a valve train issue, but Millican admitted the diagnosis was still unsettled. “We made our way to the final round in Charlotte, and then in the final we had it happen again,” he said. “And we now do believe we got it figured out. It was just something in the valve train that we were probably doing wrong and how we were checking things.”
Even so, the cost of back-to-back failures added up. “We had three superchargers, three intakes, three injectors, three short blocks, and it’s not the normal way that Jim O [Oberhofer] and Rob Flynn operate,” Millican said. “Anybody that knows this business knows that’s not normal. And we actually had one in Reading as well. All of them, very, very similar.”
The late-season timing made matters worse. “It was pretty rough on the old inventory, that’s for sure,” Millican said. “Especially this late in the year and especially when we still have a shot at winning this championship. So skipping Q4 was the absolute right thing to do, even though you always hate to not get that data on a racetrack on race weekend.”
That decision mirrored a similar situation a week later in St. Louis. Millican again parked his car for Q4 after another Q3 explosion, this time blaming himself. He described it as nothing more than a driver pushing the car too far. On race day, his dragster lost a head gasket in the first round of eliminations.
Both weekends underscored the fragile balance of racing at 330 mph and the importance of having suppliers and competitors step up when disaster strikes. “Unbelievable,” Millican said. “I got in here yesterday, and to hear the stories and to see the parts that had shown up, unreal. Darren Mayer builds the superchargers for a lot of the teams out here. He essentially shut his shop down to nothing but getting us parts for this weekend. Had one of his employees actually drive it from Michigan down here. Brought us superchargers.”
That list extended well beyond blowers. “Victory valve, same thing. They stopped and did whatever was needed to make sure we had valves, Mahle rings, bearings, all those things that we get from them. Comp Cams, which we’re obviously representing in St. Louis], stood on the gas and got us camshafts ready for this weekend. The Bryant Crankshafts. I mean, the list just goes on and on,” Millican said. “Everybody that we buy our parts from either called or text, Jim O, Jesse, Nicky, all those things just to make sure that we got what we need to continue chasing this thing. And that’s really cool. They don’t have to do that.”
The effort carried extra weight given the crunch of the Countdown. “Every one of those places, they’re backed up because this time of year everybody’s trying to make sure they got what it takes,” Millican said. “But man, these companies, man, they stepped up big time.”
The Carolina Nationals explosion was especially violent. “Our blow up on Q3 last week was so violent that it actually threw the clutch and flywheel assembly off the crankshaft,” Millican said. “Shook the car hard enough that it broke the rear wing. It didn’t get hit, it got broke from shake.”
The damage required new clutch components, and once again outside help made the difference. “Chris Nachtman (CNC Performance Engineering), they do all of the clutches and flywheels. He literally stopped what he was doing and built us new parts for this weekend,” Millican said. “Again, none of these people had to do that. They all got a list of things that they got to get done to keep their business rolling, and they all went above and beyond. But I mean, we got all new clutch parts from Cupcake [Nachtman]. He stood up and fricking knocked it out of the park.”
Those gestures made a difference not only mechanically but emotionally. “It’s pretty cool,” Millican said. “Makes you feel good that those people are paying attention and go above and beyond to make sure our team and Tony’s team have what we need to race this weekend. Pretty dang cool.”
The support extended beyond manufacturers. Fellow racers and crew chiefs pitched in as well. Tasca Racing, Aaron Brooks, Bobby Lagana Jr. and Kalitta Motorsports all contributed parts or assistance. It was a reminder that while competition is fierce on Sunday, cooperation often defines the rest of the weekend.
In back-to-back weekends filled with explosions, skipped sessions and early exits, Millican said the bigger lesson was clear. Wins and round data may matter in the standings, but survival depends on community. And with a grin, he put it even simpler: “Blowing up is part of the deal — but thanks to this group, it won’t ever be the end of the deal.”
