With his conspicuous absence from the racing scene this season, you may be wondering where Mike Murillo and his familiar “Lafawnduh” Ford Mustang have been as of late. After all, the popular Texan has been barnstorming the country for years with his SCT Performance-sponsored twin-turbo Mustang, collecting a staggering 14 (fourteen!) NMRA and NMCA championships along the way, and needless to say, his success has made him quite the fixture in street legal and small-tire drag racing.

As many will recall, Murillo made the long-awaited switch to alcohol on his 542 cubic inch big block over the winter and was out shaking the new combination down back in the early spring months to prepare for the racing season ahead. But, as it turns out, his racing plans got a little sidetracked when a pair of newly-minted television stars (one of whom could almost qualify as his own doppelgänger) came calling.

And who are those individuals you ask? How about “Murder Nova” Shawn Ellington and “Big Chief” Justin Shearer of Discovery Channel’s Street Outlaws fame. That’s right, Mike Murillo has been in the ‘405’, and you’re likely to see him — and possibly even Lafawnduh — on an upcoming season of the wildly popular reality television program.

Murillo, who operates Murillo Motorsports, a do-it-all high performance shop in San Antonio, has been assisting the Midwest Street Cars gang up in Oklahoma City with their turbocharged street cars made famous over the last couple of years on the Discovery Channel, working to make them quicker and faster than ever.

“Assisting is a pretty good word for it,” says Murillo. “Chief is Chief and he knows what he’s doing. I’ve given my input on several occasions and will continue to assist as long as they want me to and as much as I can along the way. We have quite the mix of opinions that can cloud the waters of progression at times but it’s working out well so far. “I by no means am taking credit for all their successes and for sure any and all failures,” he says with a laugh.

He continued, “Chief and I have some scary weird things in common besides our looks — but he knows I’m sexier. DNA tests are inconclusive at this point but both of our mothers have no knowledge of one another. Chief and I are both smartasses, but we work very well together. Shawn is my boy and he’s my ride-or-die ninja. That man is just driven to win and loves to burn rubber.”

Naturally, hanging out in the 405 around some killer-fast machinery when you’ve got one of the quickest Outlaw 10.5 cars in the world sitting back home will give you the itch to compete, and it didn’t take long for Murillo to act upon it. In short order, he was behind the wheel of his gorgeous SCT Mustang testing on side roads and the unprepped shutdown areas of local drag strips to see just how well his twin-turbo mount would handle the less-then-stellar surfaces that the Street Outlaws cast race on.

“We’ve been preparing our car for a month or so and now we’re actively testing, with eight passes made thus far,” says Murillo. “The time I’ve spent with Jeff Lutz, Chief and Murder has helped with our new endeavor and what I’m gaining in knowledge working with them and my secret weapon Ron from Santhuffs, combined with my knowledge from years on the track, we will get this figured out.”

LaFawnduh, with well in excess of 2,000 horsepower, has been a staggering 6.31-seconds at over 230 miles per hour in the quarter-mile in the past— much quicker than any other car or truck on the show is capable of — so it was no simple task for Murillo to calm things down to make it hook in the absence of proper track prep and glue. But for a guy that’s excelled at and won everything he’s made an effort to win, there was no question he was going to try. And by “try”, we mean go all-in.

First, he pulled the tried-and-true Mickey Thompson 10.5W slicks off the car and stuffed a big pair of meats between the quarter panels. From there, it’s been a matter of playing with weight balance, suspension, and controlling the boost and overall power of the car.

“It’s puzzling how much we have had to turn it down and the crazy chassis changes we’ve had to make to get the car to hook. If I tried to run LaFawnduh on the track in her current setup she’d back-flip monster truck-style. But we’re making good strides and will continue to test on the street.”

So all of this begs the question — will we see Murillo and Lafawnduh taking a crack at reality television fame on Street Outlaws in the near future? Discovery Channel and the shows’ cast are currently filming a new season to air at a yet-undetermined date, and as of yet, the SCT Performance machine hasn’t made an appearance, but Murillo tells us that it’s a good bet you’ll see him lined up alongside his good friends “Murder Nova” and “Big Chief” on your television screens soon.

“We hope to run on the next Street Outlaws Cash Days, but lets just say that the next Texas vs Oklahoma II slugfest will be a dandy and I’m guessing will be, if not the best, for sure one of the best and highest-rated episodes yet once it films and airs,” he says.

Said Murillo emphatically, “All of my track races are on hold until further notice. We’re excited and we’re going full-tilt boogie on this.”