McClenathan qualifies No. 5 in Texas, earns two bonus points

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2009 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 2 of Countdown to 1 Playoffs (six in total)
Round 20 of 24 for season
NHRA FALL NATIONALS
Texas Motorplex
Ennis, Texas
Sept. 25-27, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501; cell 203-243-2438;
jstropus@earthlink.net

MCCLENATHAN QUALIFIES NO. 5 IN TEXAS, EARNS TWO BONUS POINTS

ENNIS, Texas (Sept. 26, 2009) - Top Fuel points leader Cory McClenathan
earned two bonus qualifying points right out of the box in Friday's first
qualifying session, by posting the second quickest pass of that round, a
stout 3.953-second elapsed time at 303.71 mph.

His ensuing laps driving the Valvoline Engine Guarantee/FRAM Tough Guard Top
Fuel dragster first produced a quicker 3.878/315.86 on Friday night, which
placed him fifth, then were followed up with a 3.985/303.43 and a
4.024/296.05, keeping ³Cory Mac² in fifth position to the finish.

"We're going to A to B, but it hasn't been the prettiest thing," he said.
"We know it's unhappy right now. I feel almost like last weekend (where he
said the same thing on Saturday, then went on to win the Concord, N.C.,
event). 

"Thanks to our Friday night session we got the No. 5 spot. It ran OK on the
third round. We were trying to do about the same thing on this last one -
run some kind of high .90 - and it ran a 4.02, putting out a cylinder early.

"(Crew chiefs) Todd (Okuhara) and Phil (Shuler) will figure it out by race
day tomorrow. The good news is we are going down the track, which is a lot
more than some of these guys can say out here, so we'll take it one at a
time."

McClenathan faces Doug Kalitta in the opening round of Sunday's Top Fuel
eliminations.

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