Indy ORP: Cory McClenathan Friday notes

McClenathan Inadvertently Shuts Off Engine

CLERMONT, Ind., Aug. 31, 2007 -- A dejected Cory McClenathan accepted full blame for his FRAM team's inability to make its first qualifying run Friday night in the 53rd Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O'Reilly Raceway Park.

"There are three buttons in the car. One is for the parachute, another is to reset the clutch and the other is to shut off the engine," explained McClenathan. "As I was finishing backing up from the burnout, I reached out to reset the clutch and accidentally pushed the button to kill the engine on what may be the best session of the weekend.

"All the guys on the crew did a great job preparing the car and (crew chief) Keith Adams and (assistant crew chief) Tony Shortall had the engine sounding very good . . . and I just didn't do my job. We felt we had a car capable of running in the low 4.50s (seconds) or the high 4.40s and I made a big mistake.

"I want to apologize to the team and our fans."

-credit: sgr