Commerce: Cory McClenathan Saturday summary

MCCLENATHAN COLLECTS NO. 10 IN ATLANTA QUALIFYING

COMMERCE, Ga. (April 18, 2009) - Cory McClenathan and the FRAM Tough Guard Top Fuel dragster team struggled on Friday to put up good numbers on the scoreboard in qualifying for the NHRA Southern Nationals, but came back today to post a solid 3.901-second pass at 307.86 mph in their fourth and last try to claim the No. 10 position for Sunday's Top Fuel eliminations rounds.

Friday's runs were a 4.458/176.77 (No. 10) and 5.541/117.49 (No. 13). Today's third attempt produced a strong 3.920/300.86, good for No. 12 at the time. He will face Larry Dixon in the first round of Sunday's eliminations. The duo are fourth and fifth in the rankings, with McClenathan just 12 points behind Dixon following today's qualifying.

"We don't normally come out and have issues the first two runs on Friday," said McClenathan, "so Todd (Okuhara, crew chief) and the FRAM Tough Guard guys feel like we're a little bit behind. At the same time, we made two good passes today and I think we have something to tune on for tomorrow.

"The upside is we can set our own destiny. We get to race Larry Dixon and right now he's ahead of us in points. That's a good thing for us. If you look at it one way, you say, OK, he's a tough competitor. But I've had some of my best days racing the toughest competitors out there.

"If you can't take them out yourself why are you going to depend on someone else to do it for you? So, I think it's a good round, it's a good time for us to step up, and hopefully we can do it."

-credit: dsr