Millican (No. 7) had out-qualified Brown (No. 10), but it was Brown who outran him and lit the win light in 4.073 seconds at 261.52 mph to 4.104 at 268.60. 

“We wanted to run a 3.92 or 3.93 (second time), and, for whatever reason, when the car was getting close to the end of the (starting-line) concrete, it started spinning the tires and it didn’t take long until it was over,” said a disappointed Millican. “We knew we needed to run fast against Antron and, looking back, we should’ve tried to run 3.99, which we knew we could do. But, when you are racing against the point leader, you’d better go for it, and we did . . . it just didn’t work.”

Rookie Spencer Massey defeated Ron Smith in the first round, 3.944/300.13 to 4.320/265.59 and then J.R. Todd 4.006/292.33 to 5.131/143.11. Massey went up in smoke at the hit of the throttle against Antron Brown in the semi.

Joe Hartley left Seattle 11th in the point standings with 523. The Portland, Ore., racer was defeated in the first round by Larry Dixon.

FUNNY CAR

Ron Capps regained a solo hold on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Funny Car class points lead at this weekend's NHRA Northwest Nationals, first by qualifying ahead of Ashley Force Hood, and then by landing in the semifinals, where he bowed out to Tim Wilkerson.

Driving the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car, Capps disposed of Cruz Pedregon in the opening round of eliminations on a hot and tricky Pacific Raceways drag strip with a 4.206-second pass at 290.26 mph, then outran his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Jack Beckman in the second round using a 4.250/273.33 pass.