Brainerd: Cory McClenathan preview

McClenathan Ready to Go Racing Again
Cory Mac Ready to Unveil New FRAM Top Fuel Team at Brainerd

Cory McClenathan will be happy to arrive at  Brainerd International Raceway
for this weekend's NHRA Lucas Oil  Nationals.

The past 10 days have been ones of turmoil for  McClenathan and the FRAM Top
Fuel team.  A week ago, McClenathan announced  he would be leaving Scott
Griffin Motorsports and starting a new team.   He's leasing a new car, motors,
parts, tractor and transporter from multi-team  owner Don Schumacher. FRAM, the
team's primary sponsor, moved with  him.

"Scott met with the people from FRAM after our race at Sonoma (July 29) and said he was going to park the car because he couldn't run it competitively through the end of the season," said McClenathan. "Don Schumacher offered to help us, and here we are today."

McClenathan  said the team definitely will be in Brainerd.  "We still have a
lot of work  to do, but the car is painted and it looks good. My intent was to
bring along  everyone who was on our team at Sonoma.  Keith Adams is our new
crew chief  and Tony Shortall remains the assistant crew chief."

McClenathan is  13th in POWERade Series points and on the brink of missing
the new playoff  system that sends only the top eight drivers down the
championship trail after  17 races. He has 633 points and is four rounds out of the last
 playoff berth  with this race and one at Reading, Pa., Aug. 17-19, remaining.

"We  won't be trying to set the world on fire this weekend," he added.  "We
just  want to get a head start for the race at Reading and the test session
at  Indianapolis the week after that."

He does have eight races,  however, to climb into the top 10. The Lake
Havasu, Ariz.-based driver has  finished in the top 10 all 15 times he's raced the
full schedule.  His best  finish is second, four times. One of his 29 career
victories came at Brainerd  (1997).

-credit: dsr