Early Parachute Slows McClenathan in Semifinals at Route 66 Raceway You know it's not your lucky day when a TV camera -- mounted on the back of your Top Fuel dragster -- is jostled by chassis movement and inadvertently hits a parachute cable,...

Early Parachute Slows McClenathan in Semifinals at Route 66 Raceway

You know it's not  your lucky day when a TV camera -- mounted on the back of
your Top Fuel dragster  -- is jostled by chassis movement and inadvertently
hits a parachute cable,  deploying the parachute as the car is going down the
track at full  throttle.

Such was the weird fate of Cory McClenathan and the Carrier Boyz FRAM Boost team during Sunday's semifinals of the CarQuest Auto Parts Nationals at Route 66 Raceway.

While no one really knew how  well the car would've run, McClenathan had to
settle for another solid  performance that showed the car can run consistently
and has the potential to  run in the 4.40-second range.

Eventual race winner Doug Kalitta  easily beat McClenathan to the finish line
with his 4.472-second run at 330.47  mph. For the record, the orange and
black FRAM Boost dragster stopped the timer  in 5.135 seconds, 174.14 mph.

"I thought the car was smoking the  tires," said McClenathan, "but when I
realized the 'chutes came out I checked  everything in the cockpit to make sure
it didn't come from the button (on the  steering wheel that usually deploys
it).  We looked and saw a camera cable  wrapped around the parachute cable.  It
was just an unfortunate  circumstance.

"We really had a good hot rod . . . the guys gave me a good race car."

Assistant crew chief Tony Shortall said he and  crew chief Wes Cerny "really
made a lot of progress" in the  combination."

After qualifying 11th (4.552 at 329.67), the driver also known at Cory Mac advanced with a narrow victory over Rod Fuller in a good drag race, 4.515 at 330.96 to 4.526 at 323.97, before eliminating David Baca in the quarterfinals, 4.552 at 327.10 to 9.322 at 91.27.

McClenathan  remained ninth in points with 495, but is closing in on several
drivers ahead of  him.

-cbr

Want motorsport news in your inbox?

Sign up for our newsletters!