Denver: Cory McClenathan Saturday report

MCCLENATHAN AND FRAM TEAM STRUGGLE TO QUALIFY NO. 9 IN DENVER MORRISON, Colo. (July 24, 2010) - Cory McClenathan and the FRAM Top Fuel dragster team had a tough two days of qualifying for the Mopar Mile High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, ...

MCCLENATHAN AND FRAM TEAM STRUGGLE TO QUALIFY NO. 9 IN DENVER

MORRISON, Colo. (July 24, 2010) - Cory McClenathan and the FRAM Top Fuel dragster team had a tough two days of qualifying for the Mopar Mile High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, finally settling for No. 9, with a 4.018-second lap at 308.64 mph, set in the final qualifying round. It is the FRAM team’s worst qualifying effort of the season.

Cory Mac's three preceding attempts produced a 4.103/272.17 (No. 4), which also resulted in an engine fire, a 7.022/97.05 (No. 8), and a 5.283/137.01 (No. 8). The 90-degree heat on Friday, 80-degree on Saturday and the always-challenging track built into the side of a mile-high mountain were contributing factors.

"We certainly had a plan coming in here to deal with the altitude and the heat," said McClenathan, No. 3 in the class point standings with three wins so far this season, "but it hasn't worked out so far. (Crew chiefs) Todd (Okuhara) and Phil (Shuler) made some changes and it looked like we were going in the right direction, but we ran out of runs to see if the changes would help.

"If we had had more runs to deal with the challenges this mile-high race brings, we may have been able to qualify better. But I have all the confidence in the world, as I always have, that the FRAM guys will be able to work out the kinks in the tune-up of this car and be ready to go rounds on Sunday."

McClenathan faces No. 8 qualifier Brandon Bernstein in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.