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BUDDS CREEK, Md. - Championship It certainly wasn't easy, but Clay Millican, crew chief Mike Kloeber and the crew of Kenny Koretsky's Werner Enterprises/Koretsky Motorsports Top Fuel dragster clinched their sixth consecutive International Hot Rod Association Torco Racing Fuels Nitro championship Monday at Maryland International Raceway.
Millican did it in typical championship fashion by winning the rain-delayed final round Monday. The victory, his 49th in six IHRA campaigns, mathematically eliminated all of his challengers. Millican coasted to the finish line in 7.276 seconds at 84.43 mph when rival Rick Cooper fouled out in the finale.
"I'm very proud of the way our Werner/Koretsky Motorsports team didn't give up all season. Clay, Mike and all the crew did a great job," said Koretsky, who became a championship team owner for the second time.
This was Millican's second straight race win and third overall during the unconventional - for Millican and the team - title chase. He won at Cayuga, Ontario, Canada, Sept. 24, and notched his first 2006 win at Edmonton, Albert, Canada. Millican did not dominate like he has in previous years, but, in the end, the result was the same.
"It's been one of the hardest years, but obviously it has been one of the most rewarding," Millican said. "Every guy on this team hung in there and did what they had to do. We never gave up . . . there is not a quitter on this team. It's very, very satisfying to win this championship.
"It's like hot-diggity-dog; I'm glad that's done and over with," added Millican, who credited a Friday night combination change by Kloeber with providing the difference in the outcome.
"After we ran 5.111 (seconds) and oiled the race track, we went back to the trailer and dug out a bunch of the old parts and put them back on the car," said Millican. "Actually, we already had these parts on once this year so in case anyone asks why we didn't do that earlier, we already did it. But, for whatever reason, it works. The car is responding again."
The oil-down did cost the team 15 valuable points and they don't want it to happen any more.
"We changed pretty much everything there was to change and the car made a fantastic run to half-track (4.9902 seconds) and we went out Saturday night and went right down the race track nice and smooth (4.637 seconds to qualify third) and the parts looked like brand new," added Millican.
He began eliminations with a 5.685-seconds effort at 314.97 mph to beat Kevin Jones (5.261, 218.34 mph) and easily defeated T.J. Zizzo in the semifinals. Millican had a nearly-perfect .030 reaction time to Zizzo's .054 and won again, 4.864 at 283.85 to 8.664 at 95.11.
"The car did what Mike wanted it to do during eliminations," Millican said.
The win extended his lead over second place Doug Foley, who was injured in a race-day accident at Cayuga, to 117 points with one race remaining. But Millican will receive a 31-point bonus awarded all drivers who compete in every IHRA eMax Series event when he races in the series' finale at Rockingham, N.C., Oct. 20-22, and that pushes his total to an insurmountable 148 points.
Millican and the Werner/Koretsky team, meanwhile, will be racing at Virginia Motorsports Park near Richmond, in the Torco Racing Fuels Nationals, Oct. 6-8
Clay Millican Clinches 6th Straight IHRA Top Fuel Title
Werner Enterprises/Koretsky Motorsports Team Capture Sixth Successive IHRA Top Fuel
BUDDS CREEK, Md. - Championship It certainly wasn't easy, but Clay Millican, crew chief Mike Kloeber and the crew of Kenny Koretsky's Werner Enterprises/Koretsky Motorsports Top Fuel dragster clinched their sixth consecutive International Hot Rod Association Torco Racing Fuels Nitro championship Monday at Maryland International Raceway.
Millican did it in typical championship fashion by winning the rain-delayed final round Monday. The victory, his 49th in six IHRA campaigns, mathematically eliminated all of his challengers. Millican coasted to the finish line in 7.276 seconds at 84.43 mph when rival Rick Cooper fouled out in the finale.
"I'm very proud of the way our Werner/Koretsky Motorsports team didn't give up all season. Clay, Mike and all the crew did a great job," said Koretsky, who became a championship team owner for the second time.
This was Millican's second straight race win and third overall during the unconventional - for Millican and the team - title chase. He won at Cayuga, Ontario, Canada, Sept. 24, and notched his first 2006 win at Edmonton, Albert, Canada. Millican did not dominate like he has in previous years, but, in the end, the result was the same.
"It's been one of the hardest years, but obviously it has been one of the most rewarding," Millican said. "Every guy on this team hung in there and did what they had to do. We never gave up . . . there is not a quitter on this team. It's very, very satisfying to win this championship.
"It's like hot-diggity-dog; I'm glad that's done and over with," added Millican, who credited a Friday night combination change by Kloeber with providing the difference in the outcome.
"After we ran 5.111 (seconds) and oiled the race track, we went back to the trailer and dug out a bunch of the old parts and put them back on the car," said Millican. "Actually, we already had these parts on once this year so in case anyone asks why we didn't do that earlier, we already did it. But, for whatever reason, it works. The car is responding again."
The oil-down did cost the team 15 valuable points and they don't want it to happen any more.
"We changed pretty much everything there was to change and the car made a fantastic run to half-track (4.9902 seconds) and we went out Saturday night and went right down the race track nice and smooth (4.637 seconds to qualify third) and the parts looked like brand new," added Millican.
He began eliminations with a 5.685-seconds effort at 314.97 mph to beat Kevin Jones (5.261, 218.34 mph) and easily defeated T.J. Zizzo in the semifinals. Millican had a nearly-perfect .030 reaction time to Zizzo's .054 and won again, 4.864 at 283.85 to 8.664 at 95.11.
"The car did what Mike wanted it to do during eliminations," Millican said.
The win extended his lead over second place Doug Foley, who was injured in a race-day accident at Cayuga, to 117 points with one race remaining. But Millican will receive a 31-point bonus awarded all drivers who compete in every IHRA eMax Series event when he races in the series' finale at Rockingham, N.C., Oct. 20-22, and that pushes his total to an insurmountable 148 points.
Millican and the Werner/Koretsky team, meanwhile, will be racing at Virginia Motorsports Park near Richmond, in the Torco Racing Fuels Nationals, Oct. 6-8
