Cory McClenathan lost two races in Las Vegas.

He lost the Top Fuel final round at the 11th annual NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and in doing so slipped to second in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series point standings. The point leader headed into this weekend trails Vegas winner Dixon by one point.

This was his 60th career final round and third of the season.

Cory McClenathan lost two races in Las Vegas.

He lost the Top Fuel final round at the 11th annual NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and in doing so slipped to second in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series point standings. The point leader headed into this weekend trails Vegas winner Dixon by one point.

This was his 60th career final round and third of the season.

Qualifying fourth, the driver of the FRAM Top Fuel dragster enjoyed lane choice throughout the day until the final round, having dismissed Terry Haddock with a 3.906-second lap at 312.35 mph in the first round, then his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher with a 3.987, 303.64 in the quarterfinal. In the semifinal he defeated Brandon Bernstein with a 3.986, 304.39. Dixon, however, entered the final round after pulling out a quicker 3.910/313.88 lap in the semis.

McClenathan and Dixon pulled off nearly identical reaction times, but McClenathan struck the tires early, made a valiant attempt to pedal it to the finish line, but fell short with his 5.113, 158.41 pass to Dixon's winning 4.016, 313.37.

"We knew we were taking a chance, we knew we had to step up, we knew they were going to try to run good, so we did what we thought we needed to do to run our lane, and we just couldn't recover quick enough," said McClenathan.

"Lane choice was very crucial today on a tricky race track (under a hot sun and 124-degree track temperature). It's not the facility, it's just a tricky race track. When the sun hits it it changes things. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough haze or cloud cover out there to make it cooler.

"There's plenty of races left and we're certainly not out of the chase. We're testing here tomorrow. We're going to test the new Goodyear tires and some components for the future for DSR."