Indy ORP: Cory McClenathan Saturday notes

MCCLENATHAN NO. 2 GOING INTO FINAL DAY OF QUALIFYING AT U.S. NATIONALS CLERMONT, Ind. (Aug. 30, 2008) -- FRAM Top Fuel dragster driver Cory McClenathan will go into the final day of qualifying for the 54th U.S. Nationals in the No. 2 position. On ...

MCCLENATHAN NO. 2 GOING INTO FINAL DAY OF QUALIFYING AT U.S. NATIONALS

CLERMONT, Ind. (Aug. 30, 2008) -- FRAM Top Fuel dragster driver Cory McClenathan will go into the final day of qualifying for the 54th U.S. Nationals in the No. 2 position. On Friday, in the first qualifying round, he claimed the No. 1 spot, but slipped down one rung during the final qualifying session on Saturday.

McClenathan roared to a 3.852-second run at 312.57 mph on Friday evening to become low qualifier, and held on after the second round today, despite recording a tire-smoking 6.305/97.38. He then made another great pass on his third run, posting a 3.900/309.42 to finish the second day of qualifying for this prestigious event in No. 2, behind Larry Dixon, who grabbed the pole today.

"We really thought we would run quicker on that last pass," said McClenathan, who has qualified No. 1 twice at the U.S. Nationals. "Larry Dixon really laid one down running a 3.84 (-second elapsed time) in those conditions. But I'll take No. 2 right now. It seems like a lot of No. 1 qualifiers haven't been to the final round this year and won races, so we'll take it. (Crew chief) Mike Green and the FRAM guys have a good handle on the car and I'm ready to go racing on Monday.

"We'll just work on our race day setup during the heat tomorrow. That was our last shot at trying to run low elapsed time."

McClenathan will have two more qualifying attempts on Sunday to prepare for Monday's eliminations.