Cory McClenathan has been hot this season behind the wheel of his dragster. He's won two national events in four final rounds and is second in the point standings. He's triumphed 33 times in his career in 61 final rounds and has earned pole position 36 times. He's a bona fide contender.

What he hasn't done is win at Route 66 Raceway. So, with a consistently-fast hot rod under him, tuned by Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler, "Cory Mac" and the FRAM team expect to change the undesirable stat during this weekend's 13th annual Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Joliet, Ill.

McClenathan and his team will also embark on a four-in-a-row series of NHRA national events before they'll have a weekend off. After that, it's the three back-to-back races known as the Western Swing.

Cory McClenathan has been hot this season behind the wheel of his dragster. He's won two national events in four final rounds and is second in the point standings. He's triumphed 33 times in his career in 61 final rounds and has earned pole position 36 times. He's a bona fide contender.

What he hasn't done is win at Route 66 Raceway. So, with a consistently-fast hot rod under him, tuned by Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler, "Cory Mac" and the FRAM team expect to change the undesirable stat during this weekend's 13th annual Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Joliet, Ill.

McClenathan and his team will also embark on a four-in-a-row series of NHRA national events before they'll have a weekend off. After that, it's the three back-to-back races known as the Western Swing.

"This four-in-a-row is going to be tough on some people," said McClenathan, who swept the Western Swing in 1997 and then won the next event for four consecutive victories that year. "I'm actually looking forward to it, because we seem to do well in two-in-a-row, three-in-a-row, and even four-in-a-row.

"The Chicago area is home for our team owner Don Schumacher, and we want to do well for him. After Joliet, it's Englishtown, N.J., and I've done well there (three runner-ups) but have never won there, either. Then we go to Bristol, and I've had my ups and downs there, but I've also never won an NHRA national event there. Then to round it off, we go to Norwalk, Ohio, another place I've never won at. It would be great to check all of these off our list in one sweep."

McClenathan is just 97 points out of first place after nine of 23 events. "Right now it's all about going rounds," he said, "and if we can keep earning points, getting a round win here, a round win there, on (No. 1 in points) Larry Dixon, we can make it a little bit of a closer fight. Let's face it, the fans are looking toward the Countdown to 1 playoffs (in the final six events of the year for the top 10), like we are, but right now it's still exciting to keep the points close and not have somebody run away with it. That's really kind of what our goal is right now.

"And we have to keep toe-to-toe with our Don Schumacher Racing teammates Tony Schumacher (third in points in the U.S. Army Top Fuel car) and Antron Brown (fifth place). Antron and the Matco Tools team have shown that they have a good race car. So, it's going to be interesting. I just would like to keep it a really close race until we get to the Countdown and then everybody better be raring to go and on the same page. And I think that's what Todd and Phil are trying to do with the FRAM Top Fuel dragster."