MCCLENATHAN REACHES SEMIS IN TEXAS, HOLDS NO. 3 IN POINTS
ENNIS, Texas (Sept. 21, 2008) -- Cory McClenathan reached the
semifinals today for the seventh time this NHRA POWERade Drag Racing
Series season at the 23rd annual NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas
Motorplex. The driver of the FRAM Top Fuel dragster for Don Schumacher
Racing lost to DSR teammate Tony Schumacher but maintained No. 3 in the
Countdown to 1 playoffs standings. He is now within seven markers of
second-place competitor Antron Brown and 104 behind Schumacher in first.
No. 5 qualifier McClenathan began eliminations by defeating Joe Hartley
with an elapsed time of 3.887 seconds at 307.16 mph, the third quickest
run of the opening round. He then took out Clay Millican in the
quarterfinals with a 3.968/294.37 to set up his third semifinal match-up
of the season against his teammate.
The DSR Top Fuel tandem left the starting line together, but McClenathan,
without lane choice and in the less-desirable right lane, lost traction
down track, slowing to a 4.646/173.45 pass. Schumacher also hazed the
tires but still claimed the win with a 4.025/273.66.
"We're doing all the right things with this FRAM Top Fuel dragster," said
McClenathan, who advanced to the semifinals for the third straight event.
"We're qualifying in the better half of the field and we're going to the
semifinals. I feel like a semifinal bridesmaid, so to speak.
"We knew that Tony was going to run good and we've been running strong
all weekend, but we figured we needed to go out there and run at least a
3.90. Alan (Johnson, U.S. Army crew chief) and Mike (Green, FRAM crew
chief) talked beforehand and I knew that at that point in time all books
are closed. We saw the pair in front of us smoke the tires and I knew I
had to be ready if the car did something silly, and I was ready. But it
didn't recover good enough and it got out there and started spinning the
tires even harder, so I had to shut it off and let Tony go on to win.
"When you have to race a car that is that good and running so strong, you
tend to make bigger mistakes than they do and that's what we did."
The next race for McClenathan and the FRAM Top Fuel team will be the 21st
annual Mid-South Nationals at Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park, Sept.
26-28.
-credit: dsr
