Racetrack Insider - News and Views of the Motorsports Industry from Insiders Drew Patey and Buddy Judy

Cory, Robert and Mike Win at Charlotte Funny Cars and Top Fuel Cars Run 4 Wide

The NHRA Carolinas Nationals marked the beginning of the 2009 "Countdown to 1" playoffs that will determine the Full Throttle world champions, and with the racers entering the event separated by 10 points in most positions, that meant a lot of jumbling throughout the day. McClenathan took the Top Fuel points lead when he won the final round, moving around incoming leader Antron Brown and Tony Schumacher, who are tied for second. McClenathan picked the perfect time to grab his first win since the spring Las Vegas event last year. Appearing in his fourth final of 2009, McClenathan defeated rookie-of-the-year candidate Shawn Langdon to claim the 31st Top Fuel win of his career. In the final, Langdon got the jump at the Tree and appeared to be in the lead until about the eighth-mile mark when his engine let go. That allowed McClenathan to move around him and win with a 3.857, his best run of the day. In Funny Cars Safety-Kleen's Robert Hight started the day in 10 position and at the end of the day he moved up in the points by winning the final round over Matt Hagan. Hight was strong all day running a consistant 4.14 beating teammate Ashley Force Hood in the semi finals. In Pro Stock it was all Mike Edwards as he dominated all day qualifying No. 1, setting low E.T. and top speed, running low E.T. of every round of eliminations, and winning the event. Edwards won the final over Greg Stanfield, taking a .013-second lead at the start and outrunning Stanfield by nearly four-hundredths. The biggest event of the day however was the NHRA Demonstration Event Running 4 Wide just before the finals. The NHRA invited 4 Funny Cars and 4 Top Fuel cars to go 4 wide down the track in Charlotte. What a spectacular event - the Fuel cars simply rotated the earth on Sunday. A big thank you to the Charlotte Branch Motorsports team of Wayne Brady, Charlie Barber, Sam Moody and Mike Goddard for helping set up and clean up after the big event.