Brainerd: Cory McClenathan final summary

Loss of traction McClenathan's downfall at BIR

BRAINERD, Minn. (August 14, 2005) -- After a lengthy delay to clean the track after an oil down, Cory McClenathan fell victim to tire smoke -- loss of traction -- at the 24th NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals at BIR, Brainerd International Raceway in the opening round of eliminations.

McClenathan, driver of the Carrier Boyz Racing FRAM AirHog Top Fuel dragster, sat for approximately 45 minutes in the car before the clean up was complete, at which time crew chief Todd Smith made a decision to switch from the left lane to the right. At the green light McClenathan immediate went up in smoke and could now only focus on the next race as Mitch King moved to the next round.

"Normally, after an oil down, the lane that the Safety Safari works on is 100-percent better," said Smith. "I, along with a few other crew chiefs, visually checked both lanes and we all agreed that the right was the better of the two lanes -- thus the change. If I had it to do over, I don't think I would have done anything different."

"After looking at data, we can't blame it on anything. I just made a bad call in hindsight but it would have probably done the same thing in either lane. We didn't make the right call for the track we ran on at the time we ran on it. That was too bad because we had a consistently good car throughout qualifying."

Unofficially, McClenathan leaves the Lucas Oil Nationals No. 9 in the POWERade point standings. He now has 797 points.

NEXT RACE: With another race immediately following, Chip Ellis and G Squared Motorsports move straight to Memphis, Tenn., for the NHRA O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park, Aug. 19-21.

-www.carrierboyzracing.com