McClenathan is No. 5 in Houston qualifying
DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2010 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 5 of 23
23rd Annual NHRA Spring Nationals
Houston Raceway Park
Baytown, Texas
April 9-11, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501; cell 203-243-2438;
jstropus@earthlink.net
MCCLENATHAN IS NO. 5 IN HOUSTON QUALIFYING
BAYTOWN, Texas (April 10, 2010) - NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Top
Fuel points leader Cory McClenathan and the FRAM Top Fuel team made a stab
at earning No. 1 in the final qualifying session, held in cooler conditions
following a three-hour rain delay and a number of oildowns.
They came up short, posting a 3.851-second pass at 260.06 mph with a damaged
engine at the finish line. He set his quickest lap of 3.831/317.27 in the
third round today (the third quickest of the round), which followed his
Friday laps of 3.856/318.54 (No. 2), and a 3.946/281.42 (No. 6). He earned
three bonus qualifying points for his efforts.
"We've had one of those weekends where it's an all-or-nothing-type deal," he
said. "We had a good run to get us in on Friday, then we went for it last
night and hurt the car. We had to reel it back in this morning and posted
another good run, a solid .83, but it was not enough to move us up in the
field where we wanted to be.
"We had to go for it in the last session. Obviously, our teammate Tony
Schumacher went for it too and he took No. 1 at the time (Larry Dixon and
Antron Brown, in the final pairing took it away with a 3.772 and 3.777,
respectively). But we had what I would think would have been low ET of the
session in that run. The incremental numbers were really good, but it has to
go from A to B and my FRAM guys know that and I know that.
"To be able to shut it off and run an .85 at 260 mph tells you it was on a
good run. So, we need to come back tomorrow, reel it back in and start going
from A to B.²
McClenathan faces T.J. Zizzo in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.
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