{"id":102586,"date":"2025-11-17T23:44:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T23:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/jeff-lutz-in-top-fuel-clay-millican-says-its-happening-in-2026\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T23:44:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T23:44:17","slug":"jeff-lutz-in-top-fuel-clay-millican-says-its-happening-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/jeff-lutz-in-top-fuel-clay-millican-says-its-happening-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Lutz in Top Fuel? Clay Millican Says It\u2019s Happening in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

A casual rain-delay conversation in the Rick Ware Racing pit at Pomona may have produced one of the most surprising storylines heading into 2026: Street Outlaws star Jeff Lutz appears to be on track to make his first laps in a Top Fuel dragster next season.<\/p>\n

The revelation came straight from RWR team owner Rick Ware and Top Fuel driver Clay Millican during Millican\u2019s latest YouTube video chronicling the bizarre, rain-soaked NHRA Finals weekend. With the event crawling toward an inevitable cancelation, Millican and Lutz found themselves killing time in the pits \u2013 and that\u2019s when Ware dropped the bombshell on camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about it for a long time,\u201d Lutz said, standing next to Millican as the rain came down. \u201cEvery time we get a chance, we\u2019re always busy or something\u2019s going on, but we\u2019re getting to the point where we\u2019re going to have some fun. I\u2019d like to try it. I\u2019d like to just say, \u2018Hey, I got my Top Fuel license.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ware didn\u2019t hesitate to make it clear this isn\u2019t wishful thinking or some offhand joke. \u201cAt some point, this man\u2019s going to make some passes,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just saying. And I\u2019ll put it out there. We can start all the internet talk. You heard it here first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lutz, who has built one of the most respected careers in street-car and small-tire drag racing \u2013 from \u201cDrag Week\u201d to \u201cStreet Outlaws\u201d to his own high-end fabrication shop \u2013 didn\u2019t play coy about the challenge. He admitted he\u2019s watched Millican\u2019s in-car footage \u201cover and over,\u201d studying the hand movements, procedures, and chaos of the cockpit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched him in Vegas,\u201d Lutz said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot going on in that cockpit that I\u2019ve never done, and I\u2019m up for the challenge. It\u2019s going to take a little bit of time to watch and learn. He\u2019s got 30 years of experience in that car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millican lit up at the idea of helping transition Lutz from street icon to 11,000-horsepower nitro pilot \u2013 and said he believes the veteran hot rodder has exactly the mentality needed to adapt.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a hardcore racer,\u201d Millican said. \u201cAnd if nothing else, what a storyline, right? I think with everybody I know, we can make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The natural next question was timeline, and the video delivered that too. When asked if this could become reality as early as next season, Lutz and Ware gave an unequivocal yes. The expectation is that Lutz will make at least a burnout \u2013 and possibly more \u2013 during the 2026 NHRA season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be done in the next year,\u201d Ware said.<\/p>\n

Millican doubled down: \u201cIf we talk at the In-N-Out Burger Finals in 2026, this guy will have had at least a squirt in a Top Fuel dragster.<\/p>\n

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This story was originally published on November 17, 2025. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Jeff Lutz in Top Fuel? Clay Millican Says It\u2019s Happening in 2026<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A casual rain-delay conversation in the Rick Ware Racing pit at Pomona may have produced one of the most surprising storylines heading into 2026: Street Outlaws star Jeff Lutz appears to be on track to make his first laps in a Top Fuel dragster next season. The revelation came straight from RWR team owner Rick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}