AREND'S 2nd-ROUND LOSS IS BY INCHES, AT THE HANDS OF HIS TEAMMATE
Jeff Arend had a fine weekend, here in wine country. He was never overpowering in his Chevron Techron Impala, but he once again managed to find a solid place in the field, he ran his best laps on Sunday, and he took out power hitter Tony Pedregon in round one, for a morale boosting win. He then outran his second round opponent, by 17-thousandths of a second, in one of the best side-by-side races of the day, but in the other lane was teammate Del Worsham, with Arend's blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Impala body on his car, and Worsham edged ahead for the win by all of 5-thousandths of a second, thanks to his starting line advantage. It was easy to be disappointed, but just as easy to be proud of the effort and happy for Team CSK, on a strong day for the organization.
Arend's qualifying efforts mirrored those of nearly the entire class, as he failed to negotiate the full 1,320 during the early sessions each day (Q1 and Q3) but managed to post decent to excellent numbers during the later runs (Q2 and Q4.)
His Q2 run, which took place under the lights in typical Friday night "hero session" form, was not a flawless pass, as Arend clicked through the lights with a 5.042 on what had looked to be a solid 4.80 pass, until the motor abruptly quit running before the 1,000-foot mark.
"It wasn't on massive run, but it was running well and had it lived to the finish line it would have taken all the drama out of qualifying, because we would've been solidly in the middle of the field," Arend said. "But, we actually broke the crank on that run and were lucky we didn't have a big old explosion or mess on our hands. What it all meant was that we went into Saturday on the bump spot, with four cars behind us. I fully expected to have to move up, or we wouldn't be racing on Sunday."
As it turned it, the four drivers who were outside the show and aiming at Arend's spot were, in the end, unable to do that. Q3 featured almost nothing but tire smoke, and when Q4 rolled around, the four potential gunmen all fired blanks, leaving Arend guaranteed at least the 16th spot in the field. Coming to the line next, Arend streaked to a 4.922, to vault himself up into the 13th spot. It was the third-quickest lap of the final session, a feat which would bode well for Sunday.
"Q4 was huge for us, although I was certain we would be bumped out before we ran," Arend said. "It did take the pressure off, pulling to the line knowing we were set for the show, but that emotional relief has no bearing on how the car is going to run. It went right down there, just like Marc (Denner) and Chris (Cunningham) planned it, and there were some nice smiles in this pit area at the end of the day. We weren't way up in the field, because we didn't hit a home run on Friday night, but we were peaking at the right time."
The 13th spot brought with it a very tough assignment, as Tony Pedregon was slotted in the No. 4 position and would provide the opposition. Pedregon has won one race this year, but more impressively he came into this race in the No. 4 position in the points, as opposed to Arend's 13th spot on the POWERade chart. It was nice to be in the first round, and nice to be "peaking at the right time," but it would be no easy assignment.
4.869-seconds after leaving the starting line, Arend not only had his quickest run of the weekend, he also had a huge win, and set himself up for a second round date with the boss, Del Worsham.
"The ladder had us potentially meeting in the second round, but between the two of us we had to beat Tony and Del had to beat Ron Capps, so we knew if we somehow pulled that off we'd meet in the second round, and one of our teams would be going to the semi-final. We did our part, taking out Tony, and then Del pulled off a great one to beat Capps. Ron is one of Del's best friends, but he's been a thorn in Del's side for a couple of years. We were pumped to see Del get the win, and all of us were pumped to face him in round two."
Apparently, it was Worsham who was the most pumped, though, as he bolted from the starting line first during the teammates' second-round match-up. Worsham's edge at the tree was 22-thousandths. Both cars tore down the track to one of the most competitive and best-run races of the day. At the stripe, the E.T.s flashed on the boards and Arend's was 17-thousandths quicker (4.912 to Worsham's 4.929.) With the 22-thousandths in the bank, Worsham was able to hold off the charging Arend, taking the win light by just 5-thousandths of a second.
"Man, the boss nailed me, that's all there is to that," Arend said. "We had enough car to knock him out, and both of our teams just did a fantastic job of preparing the cars and getting them down the track. It was a great race, and he nipped us by inches, so we all have a lot to be proud of. I don't like to lose, ever, but if there's anything that makes it feel a little better it's when Del does it, and he gets to move on. By the end of the day, Del was the runner-up and everybody on our team was right there with him. It was a good weekend for all of us."
