NHRA

Sonoma: Cory McClenathan final report

MCCLENATHAN LANDS IN QUARTERFINALS AT THE FRAM-AUTOLITE NATIONALS SONOMA, Calif. (July 27, 2008) -- FRAM Top Fuel dragster driver Cory McClenathan advanced to the quarterfinals today at the FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway. It was ...

Published: Jul 28, 2008, 3:22 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

MCCLENATHAN LANDS IN QUARTERFINALS AT THE FRAM-AUTOLITE NATIONALS

SONOMA, Calif. (July 27, 2008) -- FRAM Top Fuel dragster driver Cory McClenathan advanced to the quarterfinals today at the FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway. It was the second time in three races that McClenathan has reached the quarterfinals, maintaining his No. 5 position in the Top Fuel point standings.

He began the day with an elapsed time of 3.869 seconds at 312.42 mph to defeat Doug Herbert in the opening round after Herbert red-lighted and was disqualified. McClenathan smoked the tires just off the starting line against quarterfinal opponent Hillary Will and slowed to a 4.957/165.29 pass. Will also smoked the tires further down track, but scored the win with a 4.479/223.25 run.

"Our weekend just didn't start off the way (crew chief) Mike Green and I had hoped," said McClenathan, who qualified 13th. "We thought if we could go down the track on the first qualifying run and run better on the second run on Friday night that we could work on the race-day tune-up on Saturday. But we had some difficulties with the FRAM car. Mike and the guys made the changes we needed to make and the car ran flawlessly during the first round today and we were just trying to do the same thing in the second round, but it was just a little bit too aggressive. The FRAM dragster got loose and I tried to pedal it, but about the second or third time it threw the blower belt off and it ended our chances right there.

"Once again we had the right people (around us in the point standings) go out early today, but we couldn't take advantage of the points and we didn't lose in the points. It's a give-and-take take deal. We're still in fifth, we're in a great position, and we're ready for the Countdown (to the Championship, which begins following the U.S. Nationals Labor Day weekend). By the time it comes we're going to have a good race car. But with this being FRAM's race, I really wanted to win. We're just going to have to wait until next year."

-credit: dsr

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Sonoma: Chip Ellis final report

Next article Sonoma: Final round-by-round results

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

MotoGP riders oppose fines for missing fan events

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Indonesian GP

20 min

MotoGP riders oppose fines for missing fan events

Christian Horner blames Dietrich Mateschitz’s death for the “painful” end of his F1 reign

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

49 min

Christian Horner blames Dietrich Mateschitz’s death for the “painful” end of his F1 reign

F1 signs historic 10-year Rwanda deal to host African Grand Prix

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 1 h

F1 signs historic 10-year Rwanda deal to host African Grand Prix

Why Mercedes' latest 2026 F1 update is no downgrade

Formula 1

Singapore GP

Why Mercedes' latest 2026 F1 update is no downgrade

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts