Atlanta: Cory McClenathan preview

MCCLENATHAN AND FRAM TEAM SET TO BOUNCE BACK IN ATLANTA BROWNSBURG, Ind. (May 12, 2010) - After suffering a first-round defeat at the hands of their Don Schumacher Racing teammate Antron Brown in St. Louis following a No. 1 qualifying effort, Cory ...

MCCLENATHAN AND FRAM TEAM SET TO BOUNCE BACK IN ATLANTA

BROWNSBURG, Ind. (May 12, 2010) - After suffering a first-round defeat at the hands of their Don Schumacher Racing teammate Antron Brown in St. Louis following a No. 1 qualifying effort, Cory McClenathan and the FRAM Top Fuel dragster team are set to bounce back at this weekend's NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga.

Despite the setback, McClenathan remained second in the point standings and is just 41 points out of regaining the top spot he held earlier in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season.

"Todd, Phil (crew chiefs Okuhara and Shuler) and the FRAM boys went back and looked at some things and tested some parts and pieces and they pretty much know what happened in St. Louis," said McClenathan, a three-time Atlanta Dragway titlist in his 20th season racing Top Fuel. "They're going to rectify the situation and we just need to keep a better eye on it.

"In a nutshell, we're running these cars so hard now to 1000 feet to come up with good elapsed times that some of the parts in some of the areas aren't lasting as long. We just need to kind of go back, put a few new things back in the car, and just let them do their thing and take them basically out of circulation a little bit sooner than we normally would.

"I'm proud of the FRAM guys because when Todd found the problem, he called me and told me exactly what it was, and I like that. Todd thinks things through very thoroughly, as does Phil, so it's really nice to have them call me and say, 'Hey, Dude, don't worry about it. We've got a great race race, we'll go right into the next race and come out swinging. Don't worry; it was just a few parts here and there. We changed them out and we're good to go.'

"We definitely have a good race car right now," added McClenathan, who has two season wins under his belt and three No. 1 qualifiers. "It's so nice to go into each race knowing that we can actually win the race that weekend. We'll go out there and try to win Atlanta and go right back and try to win in Kansas the week after."