Seattle: Cory McClenathan final summary

Tire Spin and Smoke Send McClenathan to Early Loss in Seattle

One second Cory McClenathan was pulling away from David Baca in the opening round of the Schuck's Auto Supply Nationals at Pacific Raceways Sunday and the next he was shutting off the engine in the Carrier Boyz Racing FRAM Boost Top Fuel dragster.

Tire spin and smoke led to the disappointing loss that capped a hot weekend featuring temperatures in the mid-90s to 102 degrees.

"We were driving away from him and the car felt good," said McClenathan. "We were just about to our comfort area on the track when it blew the tires off. I tried to save it, but he was pulling away so I shut it off."

McClenathan coasted through in 5.223 seconds at 218.65 mph to Baca's 4.777 at 301.13 mph.

Crew chief Wes Cerny said he expected the race track to be better than what it was. "The clutch was too aggressive and that caused the tires to spin."

McClenathan remained ninth in POWERade Series points with 623.

The team moves to Sonoma, Calif., for its most important event of the year, next weekend's FRAM Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway.

-cbr