Auto Club Finals: Can Mac Attack?

Above: Cory McClenathan will go for his first NHRA Top Fuel title on Sunday. (Staff photo by Will Lester)

The game plan Sunday is simple for Cory McClenathan, who comes into the final day of the NHRA Full Throttle Series season third in points and three rounds of racing from his first Top Fuel championship.
"Sometimes you get caught up in the deal," said McClenathan, who has finished second four times in a career that dates back to 1991. "We just have to go out there and try to race and not worry what we have to do (to win the championship).
"It's smarter to race our car no matter where we are qualified and just go some rounds."
But McClenathan, who was sixth through the first three rounds of qualifying, also knows when he wants to race Sunday, beginning with the first round, which is scheduled for 11 a.m.
"If it stays the way it is, we will be in front of (Larry Dixon and Tony Schumacher, who are first and second in points)," McClenathan said. "I'm OK with that. I'd rather to go out and win a round and know they have to win. If you can throw down one and know you're already into the second round, that's a big deal for me. I don't want to sit back there (in the staging lanes) and anticipate what's going to happen. I'd rather go out and race and get it done. Maybe it might be better to be eighth or ninth, first pair out and not worry about it."
McClenathan may also have to pull off what Schumacher did a few years ago - winning the race and setting a national record. He is more than 50 points back of Dixon and would have to go three rounds further than either Dixon or Schumacher to win the championship. If either of them advance to the semifinals, McClenathan would have to win the race and lower the national e.t. record a 3.77.
He thinks it's still possible.
"The conditions are definitely there," McClenathan said. "But now for us, we have to get a backup tonight, or have a record run and set the back up (on Sunday). Those points are still on the table and no one has taken advantage of them yet. That's what we are trying to do. If we can do it tonight, then we can go after an extra 20 points Sunday."