Championship Drag Racing

NHRA Route 66 Nationals
Chicago, Ill.
(May 20-23)

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King Demon Crown

Cory McClenathan Berryman Products Top Fueler

Reports: Sunday Saturday Pre-race

Chicago, Sunday: A red light ended Cory McClenathan's day at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals when he fouled away a win to a tire-smoking Doug Kalitta.

In the opening round, McClenathan, in the Carrier Boyz Racing Berryman Products Top Fuel dragster, took the win over his former boss David Baca. McClenathan drove for the Henkelman & Baca Motorsports team in 2002.

McClenathan tripped the Route 66 Raceway finish line light in 4.511 seconds, followed by Baca in 4.544 seconds.

In the quarterfinals, McClenathan was seven-thousandth of a second too quick. Kalitta was at risk when he lost traction and smoked the tires. Kalitta ran an elapsed time of 8.225 seconds to 5.649 seconds for McClenathan. The red light by McClenathan gave Kalitta an immediate win light.

Nobody at this track felt worse than Cory Mac did.

There is nobody that is kicking himself more than I am right now," said McClenathan after the quarterfinals. "Everybody did their job and I threw it away. With Doug (Kalitta) going up in smoke like he did, this Berryman Products car would have been in the semifinals had I just done my job. Who knows, we might have been able to give Andy and Mark (Carrier) back-to-back wins. We'll never know, all because of a red light.

"Once again, let me say (crew chief) Todd Smith and the guys did a good job all weekend. We'll suck it up and go to Topeka."

Chicago, Saturday: Fresh from a win at Atlanta Dragway last weekend, Cory McClenathan, driver of the Carrier Boyz Racing Berryman Products Top Fuel dragster, ended qualifying for the seventh annual NHRA Route 66 Nationals in the No.12 spot on the Top Fuel qualifying ladder.

The final qualifying session for Top Fuel was canceled due to severe weather in the Joliet, Ill., area.

In the opening round of eliminations, McClenathan will face his former car owner David Baca. McClenathan qualified with a pass of 4.629 seconds at 321.mph, while the No. 5 Baca, qualified with a run of 4.529 seconds at 329.83 mph.

In five attempts at this event, McClenathan has never won. His best outing was approximately one year ago when he advanced to the semifinal round.

Chicago, pre-race: At this weekend's NHRA Route 66 Nationals, veteran Top Fuel driver Cory McClenathan would like to keep the momentum going.

Fresh from a win at Atlanta Dragway last weekend, McClenathan feels that the Carrier Boyz Racing Berryman Products dragster is going to need a lot more power to keep the momentum on his team's side.

"Of course the momentum side of things is great to carry into Chicago," said McClenathan, who now has 28 career wins in 45 final rounds. "At the same time we know we're going to need a lot more horsepower than we showed in Atlanta. This track is noted for quick times and high speeds. There will be a lot more cars running big numbers, especially if the weather cooperates.

"The track at Route 66 is pretty awesome and we usually get one cool weather run on Friday evening. I think our chances are pretty good to go out there and qualify well and just like Atlanta, we're not going to try to win the race we're just going to try to go rounds. It just so happened in Atlanta that we went four rounds and won four rounds. Don't get me wrong, that was awesome.

"The crew led by Todd Smith did an excellent job of getting me down a hot sticky track. They were great on every pass. Who knows maybe we'll do that here too."

In five attempts at this event, McClenathan has never won. His best outing was approximately one year ago when he advanced to the semifinal round.

Entering this weekend's event, the eighth of 23 races on the 2004 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, McClenathan is No. 4 in the Top Fuel point standing.