Gainesville: Cory McClenathan final summary

Cory Mac Chastises Himself Following Opening Round at Gatornationals

Cory McClenathan thought he should've won his opening round of Sunday's ACDelco Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. And he blamed himself when he didn't.

"Our Carrier Boyz Racing crew did a great job working on the Fram Top Fuel dragster all weekend, especially today," he said. "But I messed it up by not doing my job."

The veteran driver was a little harsh on himself with the assessment. The cause of McClenathan's unhappiness was a .077-second reaction time against Doug Kalitta, who left with a .033-second light and never relinquished the lead.

"In retrospect, it really wasn't a horrible light," McClenathan added, "but it wasn't good enough." It sent Kalitta into the quarterfinals with a winning time of 4.553 seconds at 328.46 mph to Cory Mac's 4.534 at 325.69. "We' ll learn from our mistakes, suck it up and go out and do better the next time," he said.

Crew chief Wes Cerny and Tony Shortall, his assistant, "were making good horsepower and we should've been going rounds instead of going home," McClenathan said.

McClenathan's next NHRA outing is at Houston, March 30-April 1. He will, however, be making an appearance at the NASCAR race at Bristol, Tenn., next weekend as a guest of Bristol Motor Speedway.

-credit: cbr