Millington: Cory McClenathan

Rains delay start of the NHRA O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals McClenathan third after day 1.

MILLINGTON, Tenn. -- Depending on which report you read, on Thursday night and into Friday torrential rains dumped anywhere from five to seven inches on the Memphis Motorsports Park quarter-mile forcing a delay to Friday's start of the NHRA O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals presented by Pennzoil.

With the NHRA Safety Safari handling the clean-up duties, the flooded track and pit area gave way to a dry track capable of handling speeds nearing 320 mph.

Cory McClenathan and crew chief Wes Cerny followed up on their plans to aggressively step-up the performance of the Henkelman & Baca Motorsports Centennial Batteries Top Fuel Dragster by running the second fastest speed and third quickest elapsed time of the one and only qualifying session that was run on Friday.

McClenathan, from Anaheim, Calif., recorded an E.T. of 4.623 seconds at a speed of 319.52 mph.

"We did what we set out to do," said McClenathan. "We planned to be aggressive, go after the big numbers and put this Henkelman and Baca Centennial Batteries Dragster as near the top of the pack as we could. On today's run (crew chief) Wes Cerny accomplished all the above.

"Tomorrow Wes will have to adjust to the changing weather conditions. There will be more sun and hotter temperatures but Wes will stick to our game plan."

After only one qualifying session on Friday, two more are scheduled for Saturday. These two sessions will finalize the Top Fuel field heading to eliminations which get underway on Sunday.

-h&bm-