Phoenix: Cory McClenathan Saturday notes

McCLENATHAN GRABS NO. 9 IN PHOENIX QUALIFYING CHANDLER, Ariz. (Feb. 21, 2009) - Driving the FRAM Top Fuel dragster, Cory McClenathan posted his quickest elapsed time of four qualifying rounds in today's third session, a 3.904-second lap at 311.63 ...

McCLENATHAN GRABS NO. 9 IN PHOENIX QUALIFYING

CHANDLER, Ariz. (Feb. 21, 2009) - Driving the FRAM Top Fuel dragster, Cory McClenathan posted his quickest elapsed time of four qualifying rounds in today's third session, a 3.904-second lap at 311.63 mph, which placed him No. 9 in the field.

His other runs were a 3.918/310.91 in the initial session (No. 5), followed by a 4.268/210.90 (No. 11), and a 5.704/113.77 in his final attempt.

"We thought the right-hand lane would be better today in the third session than it was yesterday, and that we would be able to try something down the left lane in this final run to improve our standing," said McClenathan. "It was not as good as we thought and in this last run we were kind of going for it because we had dropped down in the field.

"We wanted to be better off for tomorrow so we kind of went for it and it didn't pay off and we ended up having a blown fuel line for some reason and we haven't really been able to find why that is. From what I can tell, now it looks like I might have squeezed the throttle a little bit on the starting line. So I'll have to look at both things and we'll have to wait and see what happens tomorrow."

McClenathan faces Pomona winner and No. 8 qualifier Doug Kalitta in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday.