Cory McClenathan spent the majority of his weekend during the Auto Club NHRA Finals focused on an overwhelming task.

The Top Fuel driver, who was released from his duties as driver of the FRAM dragster, wasn’t so much focused on overtaking Larry Dixon and Tony Schumacher in the championship points standings as he was ensuring that none of his acquired trinkets were left behind as he made his way back home to La Habra, Ca.

“You gather a lot of stuff over the years,” McClenathan said with a smile. 

It’s hard to ignore the disappointment in his eyes as he puts the acquired belongings from fans into his duffel bag. However, he’s at peace with the decision handed down by his sponsor Honeywell and administered by team owner Don Schumacher.

McClenathan understands he’s the unfortunate victim of a change in marketing strategy. The reality has hit him that a younger driver is in the game plan with intentions to gain a youthful market share for FRAM.

The father and son Pro Stock duo of Johnny and Shane Gray have much to be proud of as the 2010 season comes to a close. Launching an in-house engine program is an enormous and risky undertaking, but their first year into it has shaken out to be quite productive; both cars will finish in the top 10 in the Full Throttle Series standings and Shane has been a serious contender for the Rookie of the Year title. He qualified for every race this season – 11 times in the top half – and has been to the final round twice. On Sunday, he scored his first national event victory.

Johnny hasn't quite enjoyed the rosy success of his son but has done a fine job in his own right; he was a finalist in Seattle and only missed qualifying twice – in Phoenix and at the spring race in Charlotte. On nine occasions this year, he has qualified in the top half of the tough Pro Stock field, twice just missing the pole and earning a start from the No. 2 spot.

Crew chief Craig Hankinson is pleased with what he has seen coming out of their engine shop this first season.

Multiple sources have confirmed with Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com that major changes are forthcoming with Don Schumacher Racing’s NAPA Auto Parts team. Following the team’s first round loss to Del Worsham at the Auto Club NHRA Finals, crew chief John Medlen was reportedly relieved of his crew chief duties. An official statement is expected later this week.

Funny Car driver Bob Bode's most memorable moment in drag racing came Aug. 15, when he won the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd, Minn. But the celebrating continued for another month at their Barrington, Ill., home. Son Bobby earned his own Wally trophy less than a month later, clinching the 2010 North Central Division (Div. 3) Junior Dragster championship for 8- and 9-year-olds Sept. 13 at Indiana's Bunker Hill Dragstrip.
 
He beat Jacob Oiler in the final round with a starting-line advantage and a 12.978 on his 12.94 dial-in to Oiler's 12.936 on a 12.90 dial-in. Bode also had a semifinal finish at the VP Racing Fuels Race of Champions, which was completed after he had scored his division title. He also was the points champion at Route 66 Raceway, his home track.

It’s a good thing John Force has put his time in at the gym.

After beating Bob Bode to win his 15th career series championship, Force exited the Full Throttle Experience vehicle only halfway through his championship parade up the return road. He ran as fast as he could and took a giant leap into the Pomona Fairplex fence much to the delight of the race fans crowded on the other side. It was drag racing’s Lambeau Leap but for Force it was a sign that God can even shine on a broken-down driver.

He flung his hat off into the stands and began running. And, he ran with photographers doing their very best to keep pace. He never looked back.

Steve Kent had a little more excitement than he cared for during Comp final eliminations at the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, Ca.

The veteran Comp racer lost control of his car and it did a slow roll and caught fire before impacting the opposite retaining wall.

“The car got loose in the center, I lifted and then it planted and made a right turn,” Kent explained. “I was along for the ride at that point.”

Kent was uninjured in the mishap.

What a race!  What a race!  This is the part where we should say, We told ya so, but why belabor the obvious?  This was one of those events where you had to watch every race of every round just to keep up.  This was also one of those races where emotions ran the gamut from the highest of highs to the deepest depression possible.  After the fiasco that was the Las Vegas Nationals, the Auto Club Finals was like being in another world.  Every competitor gave it his all.  Every tuner dug deep into his bag of tricks to pull out a victory.  It was a race in which age very much played a part, as youngsters tried to unseat established stars – and sometimes succeeded.  It was a race in which a cagy veteran, the sport’s most popular driver, came from seemingly out of nowhere to win again.  It was a race that had, well, everything a fan of the sport could ask for.

With Greg Anderson having clinched a very deserved Pro Stock championship Saturday, three pro titles were up for grabs today, and the least exciting of them was in Top Fuel.  Now, we know what you‘re thinking – how could Top Fuel not be exciting?  Okay, we’ll acknowledge that the racing was terrific, but there was little tension about the title.  It was Larry Dixon’s to lose, and he didn’t.  End of story.  But not quite.  Tony Schumacher and tuner Mike Green also gave it their all, but the odds were heavily stacked against them.  Dixon had enough of a cushion that he would have had to lose in the first round, and Schumacher would have not only had to go to the final and win it, he’d have to rotate the earth and set an elapsed time record during the spin.  Green said it best when asked about their chances.  “Ideally, their car won’t start.”

The 46th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals ended with a bang for Top Fuel winner Antron Brown. The driver of the Matco Tools dragster blasted to a winning 3.840 at 311.99 mph to beat Lucas Oil Speedco pilot Shawn Langdon's troubled 4.185 at 306.48. As Brown neared the finish line, his engine gave way and erupted into a fireball, but it mattered for naught as he easily got the win light.

Though he had been to the final round on six separate occasions entering the event, the victory was the first of the season for the former Pro Stock Motorcycle rider-turned Top Fuel pilot. It was win No. 25 overall and his ninth in a nitro dragster.

"It's been a real trying and a stressful year for our whole team," said Brown. "We bounced back and made it to some finals, and we've just been working our tail off. The difference of it is that we switched a lot of stuff around and we are trying to get better. We went through and we have a hot rod that has more power, so it's just getting the clutch to work with it. The guys on our team have been working hard on it, and we've started to get it together these last four races."

It's hard to separate John Force's race victory Sunday over Jeff Arend at the Automobile Club of Southern California Finals from his NHRA-record 15th Funny Car championship.
 
The two are inextricably linked. That's because the Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang driver saw the weekend's mission as part personal revival, part job interview with quarter-of-a-century sponsor Castrol, and part tribute to the technical and engineering support from the Ford Motor Company in trying to make race cars safe, aerodynamically competitive, and relevant to the automaker's global sales and marketing initiative.
 
It's a business, yet it's a romance, for Force. It's his personal stamp on drag racing and the world. At the same time it's his payback for all the long hours his team has put in, the mega-dollars Ford has invested in his Eric Medlen Project and his operation through the years, the responsibility he has to enable his workers to take care of their families, and all the new goals he has on the horizon.

Rookie of the Year candidate Shane Gray, in his third final round of the season, finally got it done at the 46th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. The Denver, N.C., racer tree'd notorious leaver and four time Full Throttle Series national champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. and closed the deal at the finish line, 6.566 to 6.568.

"I'm not really sure if this has soaked in yet," said Gray, who was .010 at the start to Coughlin's .046 reaction. "I remember that we staged up, I let the clutch out, and the yellow car disappeared. I put the car in high gear, I looked out the window, and he wasn't there. I went across the stripe and my light came on and it was like, 'What just happened, did I win? Is this the semis? What are we doing?' I went around the corner and everybody was jumping around. I have to say that Jeg Coughlin was the first one, he threw the passenger door open and stepped out and was a true sportsman. I think he was as happy for me as I was. It says a lot for him."