Top Fuel driver Clay Millican’s car is not in action at the Winternationals, but the colorful Tennessee driver is on hand offering succinct commentary alongside stellar announcer Bob Frey.  Millican’s car is owned by Evan Knoll who, as everyone knows, has taken a leave of absence from his drag racing endeavors because of health reasons.  Since there are a lot of rumors circulating about the status of Knoll’s teams, we sought out Millican for clarification of the situation.

“All of the guys who have been with me for years and years are still with me.  The whole team is still intact.  Lance (Larsen) and Johnny (West) are still working.  Our team is continuing to move forward.  We’re putting new race cars together literally every day.  We just signed the lease on a new shop that Even wanted us to move into, so we’ve kinda spent the last few days as construction workers.  It’s really going to be a cool shop. It’s got a paved Go Kart track behind it.  My shins are sore because we’ve been out there crashin’ into each other!

“The team’s fine.  I don’t know when we’re going to go racing, but nobody’s frustrated yet.  The majority of those guys have been with me for years and years, and that’s home for everybody.  We all live there, and we’ve been as busy as normal.  Now, I don’t know what’ll happen a few months from now. Top Fuel driver Clay Millican’s car is not in action at the Winternationals, but the colorful Tennessee driver is on hand offering succinct commentary alongside stellar announcer Bob Frey.  Millican’s car is owned by Evan Knoll who, as everyone knows, has taken a leave of absence from his drag racing endeavors because of health reasons.  Since there are a lot of rumors circulating about the status of Knoll’s teams, we sought out Millican for clarification of the situation.

“All of the guys who have been with me for years and years are still with me.  The whole team is still intact.  Lance (Larsen) and Johnny (West) are still working.  Our team is continuing to move forward.  We’re putting new race cars together literally every day.  We just signed the lease on a new shop that Even wanted us to move into, so we’ve kinda spent the last few days as construction workers.  It’s really going to be a cool shop. It’s got a paved Go Kart track behind it.  My shins are sore because we’ve been out there crashin’ into each other!

“The team’s fine.  I don’t know when we’re going to go racing, but nobody’s frustrated yet.  The majority of those guys have been with me for years and years, and that’s home for everybody.  We all live there, and we’ve been as busy as normal.  Now, I don’t know what’ll happen a few months from now.

“It’s a normal work day for us.  We start at 8:30 and work until at least 5:30.  Usually it’s later than that even though we’re not going to the race track.  We’re going to have some really nice stuff.  Johnny West, Mr. Wizard in the machine shop, is doing some really cool things.  It is different, though.

“My main concern is that the quicker Evan gets healthy, the quicker everything returns back to normal.  That guy’s done so much for so many people.  For him to keep all of us employed is phenomenal.  I’m in constant contact with Latrell Preston, who’s handling everything right now.  He and I talk every day or so.”

Millican indicated that his expenses had been paid to come to Pomona, because Knoll wanted him to be seen.  “As you can see, I’m wearing Torco gear, so it’s all good,” he said.  “They wanted me to be here to let everyone know that they are coming back.  They will be back next year.  They’ve got the J.R. Todd car here that’s running under the Morgan Lucas banner.  Everything’s going to be back to normal.  They’ve just to give Evan time to get healthy.  He’s such a hands-on guy and pretty wide open that it’s hard for him to stay settled down.

“Evan kind of takes care of everybody.  To put it in kind of a different way, say he carries 50 of his buddies to go golfing, pays for everything.  Well, he gets sick, and his buddies still want to go golfing, well, why should he pay for it if he can’t enjoy it?  That’s just me talkin’ of course, but you see what I mean.”

Millican will celebrate his 42nd birthday on Saturday, but as he says, “It’s just another day to me.”