Denver: Jeff McClintic Friday notes

MORRISON, Colo. - NHRA Competition Eliminator driver Jeff McClintic qualified his B/Dragster ninth out of 32 qualified competitors at this weekend's Mopar Parts Mile High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway just outside of Denver. After changing many components and even modifying the chassis prior to this weekend's event, the family-run team is happy to be in the top half of the field, and hopes to improve as the weekend progresses.

McClintic, who helps run the family's machine shop with his father, John, in Albuquerque, N.M., ran an elapsed time of 7.472 seconds in his Oldsmobile powered dragster.

"After yesterday, we thought we had a pretty good baseline," said McClintic. "We tried putting a bunch of different things in the car for today, like a different rear end ratio and transmission ratios, just to see what it would do. We're going back to basically the same combination we had on Thursday. It should put us right back where we were."

McClintic and his team plan to hold nothing back for tomorrow's eliminations. He will face No. 24 qualifier Joe Angelo

"With the way this class is run, once I get by him, I'm going to get out of the throttle," explained McClintic. "By looking at the incremental times, we'll be able to tell where we are. With what we have changed, and the data we have collected, we should be able to move in the right direction. First round is a good round to learn in. After that, the ladder starts tightening up, and there's a lot of fast race cars. You don't want to try too many things against them."

Competition Eliminator will run first and second round tomorrow, with final eliminations following on Sunday.

-JMR