Clay Millican qualified and Joe Hartley didn't thus ending the battle for the final available position in the Countdown playoffs on Sunday afternoon.

Millican, behind the wheel of the Lifelock dragster, landed in the 13th position while Hartley's 4.025 was only good enough for the 18th spot. Only the top 16 qualifiers advance into the elimination.

“I was relieved . . .” Millican said when he realized Hartley was out of contention.  “I don’t believe in pressure, but I do believe in finishing in the top 10 and so it was nice to know no matter what our run was, we were going to be in the top 10.

“That’s a huge accomplishment.  No matter what happens here, we have finished in the top 10 for the first time in my drag racing career in NHRA.  We certainly aren’t planning that’ll be where we end up, but it’s nice to know we are in the top 10 and we can now get ourselves in position to go for this championship.”

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