No one can say Cory McClenathan doesn’t welcome a challenge.

The veteran Top Fuel racer confirmed to Competition Plus he’s going to compete in the new Nitro Outlaw Association in 2018. He will be driving for Dexter Tuttle.

The Nitro Outlaw Association is in its infant stages, but McClenathan did offer details of what the NOA is planning to do in its inaugural season.

“Dexter is spearheading this (the NOA) and I’m driving for him,” McClenathan said. “This put me in a position that I want to know more about it (the NOA) and I will probably sit on the driver’s board. What we’re going to do is probably run four races (at tracks) that the National Hot Rod Diesel Association competes at, and being safe is our No. 1 priority, and we will be carrying our own insurance. We will do shows with them while they do their races. We are trying to cut it down on price and get it down where the cars aren’t killing stuff. We’re dropping down to like 80 percent nitro and the overdrive will be like you can only have like 60 pounds of boost. I’m thinking the (Top Fuel dragsters) will probably run mid 80s at 1,000-foot at around 315 mph.”

McClenathan said the NOA is exploring ideas of running eight-car fields with Top Fuel Dragsters and nitro Funny Cars competing against each other. Cory Mac said they also may doing some racing to the one-eighth mile

“All this is just now coming together, and we want to do things different and keep everybody involved,” McClenathan said. “Racing to the eighth mile will bring a whole new aspect into it for a Top Fuel car. We want people to come race with us. I know a lot of the guys are going to want to stick with the NHRA thing and I totally get that, but I think we’re trying to put something out there where people can come and do this and where the parts in general will last longer. I know what it takes to go run hard in the NHRA events now, and it once again came down to being hard on parts. Would I love to be with NHRA? H*ll yes. But, at the same time this gives me the opportunity to run a fuel car a few times a year and still keep with my truck deal.”

Cory Mac, is going to continue to compete in the Lucas Oil Off Road Regional season in 2018 as well as doing four to six Lucas Oil Off Road National events.

According to McClenathan, the NOA is planning on racing at four events in 2018 – March 16-17 at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler, Ariz., April 27-28 and Oct. 12-13 at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, and Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo., June 9. The NHRDA also will be holding races at those venues during those weekends.

“This type of racing in the Nitro Outlaw Association will take you back to the match racing days,” McClenathan said. “We want to see how popular it is and there will be a lot of interaction with the drivers and fans and we plan on doing things on social media and we want to do livestreaming. It’s a lot different than NHRA, but at the same time, it’s somewhere to start for some of us of who really can’t afford to go to NHRA races and run all the time.”