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Del Worsham never expected it in 2007. He certainly never anticipated having it happen again in 2008. But, the numbers are unemotional and unconcerned, and when the clutch dust had cleared at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Worsham had failed to qualify at the season opening race for the second consecutive year.
The new qualifying format was really of no consequence at this race, as there was no individual "hero session" to skew the qualifying times. In the end, the best runs of the weekend came in the final session on Saturday afternoon, with the No. 1 spot changing hands multiple times, but Worsham lost traction on both of his Saturday runs. During Q3, the red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Chevy made it about 400 feet before boiling the hides, and Worsham was confident a small change in the clutch department would fix that issue for Q4.
"The power was fine, and the tune-up wasn't that far off during the first Saturday run," Worsham said. "We just seem to have the clutch set a little too aggressive, and it powered into tire smoke. We basically left the rest of it alone, and just pushed the timers out a little to help it get through that spot, but you'd think we threw the kitchen sink at it the way it reacted. The last run was, by far, our worst of the weekend, and I'm not yet sure how it happened that way. We thought we made it safer, but it was more aggressive. Apparently, we're over-center on the power curve right now.
"We spent the preseason going down the track, one lap after another, and when we got here the first two laps were legging down there, but we just couldn't keep all eight cylinders lit the whole way. To me, it seemed like a pretty easy fix coming out here today, but somehow we managed to mess the whole thing up and we stepped on our own feet. No excuses, no whining, we just messed up. I don't know what to think right now. I can't believe we did this."
Worsham's 2007 experience does, at least, give him the knowledge to understand what can be accomplished, no matter the outcome of the first race.
"Under no circumstances is it a good thing to DNQ at Pomona, so don't get me wrong," he said. "But we finished ninth in the points last year, after completely screwing up the first two races, so I know we're still a solid top ten team. We can bounce back from this, and we will bounce back, but that doesn't make it feel any better right now.
"Once we get through the emotion of the moment, and it's not an easy thing to get through, we'll analyze it all and we'll head to Phoenix in a couple of weeks. When we get there, we'll only be one round behind half the guys who qualified here. Right now, it feels like the end of the world, but when you realize we're just one round behind half of the field, you know you can overcome it. We can come out strong at the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Nationals and forget all about this. We need to do that anyway. We need to move on and get positive."
DEJA VU IN POMONA AS WORSHAM FAILS TO QUALIFY
Del Worsham never expected it in 2007. He certainly never anticipated having it happen again in 2008. But, the numbers are unemotional and unconcerned, and when the clutch dust had cleared at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Worsham had failed to qualify at the season opening race for the second consecutive year.
The new qualifying format was really of no consequence at this race, as there was no individual "hero session" to skew the qualifying times. In the end, the best runs of the weekend came in the final session on Saturday afternoon, with the No. 1 spot changing hands multiple times, but Worsham lost traction on both of his Saturday runs. During Q3, the red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Chevy made it about 400 feet before boiling the hides, and Worsham was confident a small change in the clutch department would fix that issue for Q4.
"The power was fine, and the tune-up wasn't that far off during the first Saturday run," Worsham said. "We just seem to have the clutch set a little too aggressive, and it powered into tire smoke. We basically left the rest of it alone, and just pushed the timers out a little to help it get through that spot, but you'd think we threw the kitchen sink at it the way it reacted. The last run was, by far, our worst of the weekend, and I'm not yet sure how it happened that way. We thought we made it safer, but it was more aggressive. Apparently, we're over-center on the power curve right now.
"We spent the preseason going down the track, one lap after another, and when we got here the first two laps were legging down there, but we just couldn't keep all eight cylinders lit the whole way. To me, it seemed like a pretty easy fix coming out here today, but somehow we managed to mess the whole thing up and we stepped on our own feet. No excuses, no whining, we just messed up. I don't know what to think right now. I can't believe we did this."
Worsham's 2007 experience does, at least, give him the knowledge to understand what can be accomplished, no matter the outcome of the first race.
"Under no circumstances is it a good thing to DNQ at Pomona, so don't get me wrong," he said. "But we finished ninth in the points last year, after completely screwing up the first two races, so I know we're still a solid top ten team. We can bounce back from this, and we will bounce back, but that doesn't make it feel any better right now.
"Once we get through the emotion of the moment, and it's not an easy thing to get through, we'll analyze it all and we'll head to Phoenix in a couple of weeks. When we get there, we'll only be one round behind half the guys who qualified here. Right now, it feels like the end of the world, but when you realize we're just one round behind half of the field, you know you can overcome it. We can come out strong at the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Nationals and forget all about this. We need to do that anyway. We need to move on and get positive."
