McClenathan grabs provisional U.S. Nationals pole

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2010 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 18 of 23
Round 1 of six in Countdown to the Championship
56th annual U.S. Nationals
O'Reilly Raceway Park
Clermont, Ind.
Sept. 3-6, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

MCCLENATHAN GRABS PROVISIONAL U.S. NATIONALS POLE

CLERMONT, Ind. (Sept. 3, 2010) - Cory McClenathan raced the FRAM Top Fuel
dragster into the provisional No. 1 qualifying position tonight at the 56th
annual U.S. Nationals, posting a track-record elapsed time of 3.789 seconds
at 319.98 mph.

He bettered the ET he set during testing here at this track last week, of
3.790 seconds at 324.28 mph.

If it holds through four more qualifying rounds throughout the weekend, he
will have earned his fifth No. 1 of the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
Series season and the 38th of his career.

"Actually, the track was better tonight than it was during testing," he
said, "and it was getting cooler and dropping like a rock temperature-wise.
So, the biggest thing was just to try go out there and repeat what we did.
We had the same setup in it and it did that.

"Unfortunately, it hurt itself down there and locked up the car and it took
a little bit of time to get it off of there. I'm sure the FRAM guys can
handle that and Don (Schumacher, team owner) won't mind paying the bill on
that one.

"(Crew chiefs) Todd (Okuhara) and Phil (Shuler) have shown again and again
how these guys work together; they work very well. They're very in tune with
each other when it comes to what we're going to do with the setup.

"My hat's off to the FRAM guys and then to the track prep and everything
else. Kurt Johnson (who handles the track prep for NHRA) and his guys did a
great job for NHRA.

"I am over flying underneath the radar. This car is running good. We need to
just come out and start swinging.

"My guys are great. They're very easygoing, they're not trying to bust
anybody's guts and they're just trying to do their job. They did a great job
this weekend. And during testing. We made six runs (in testing), we were
very happy with the way it went, brought that same setup back here. So, our
FRAM car is running good and we're just going to try to roll it in tomorrow.

"We have another shot tomorrow night, so we're waiting for that. Antron
(Brown) ran good, I'm sure Tony (Schumacher) is going to turn it right back
around," he said of his Don Schumacher Racing teammates. "I expect to see
more .70s before the weekend is out."

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