IDENTICAL 4.141s LEAVE WORSHAM OUTSIDE
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/d_worsham.jpg" alt="d_worsham" align="left"borders="0"/>
Del Worsham made two Saturday passes down the strip at The Strip, running a pair of identical 4.141s. After his second, and final, lap, Worsham sat precariously on the No. 16 bump spot, and as sketchy as that position normally is it was far more tenuous this time, as defending POWERade Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon was the last man to take a shot at him. When Pedregon streaked from end to end, running a big 4.078, Worsham was summarily bumped from the field and now will not race on Sunday.
"It was on two good runs, and was really hauling on the last one, but it just died down there," Worsham said. "We chewed a piston out of it the first time, and although we haven't gotten the motor apart yet, my guess is we'll find No. 4 all beaten up, or missing altogether, when we get in there. As soon as we got back we put it up on the computer, and you can see No. 4 die about half-way into the run. Until then, it's a perfect duplicate of the last 4.09 we ran, and that's exactly what we went up there trying to run. If the piston would've lived another tenth of a second, we'd have been in, but that's how it works in this sport. The only number that counts is the final one.
"It's just really disappointing, and very frustrating, but we put ourselves in that bad spot. Nobody cheated us or took anything away from us. We got behind, smoking the tires yesterday, and we stayed behind. When we ran the first 4.14, earlier today, we all knew it wasn't going to be good enough to stick, and even though we still had a chance up until Tony ran, it wasn't much of a chance and you're never in a good spot when you have to rely on someone else's failure to keep you alive. We'll pack it up and head for Pomona for the last CSK round-up. That's all we can do."
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/d_worsham.jpg" alt="d_worsham" align="left"borders="0"/>
Del Worsham made two Saturday passes down the strip at The Strip, running a pair of identical 4.141s. After his second, and final, lap, Worsham sat precariously on the No. 16 bump spot, and as sketchy as that position normally is it was far more tenuous this time, as defending POWERade Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon was the last man to take a shot at him. When Pedregon streaked from end to end, running a big 4.078, Worsham was summarily bumped from the field and now will not race on Sunday.
"It was on two good runs, and was really hauling on the last one, but it just died down there," Worsham said. "We chewed a piston out of it the first time, and although we haven't gotten the motor apart yet, my guess is we'll find No. 4 all beaten up, or missing altogether, when we get in there. As soon as we got back we put it up on the computer, and you can see No. 4 die about half-way into the run. Until then, it's a perfect duplicate of the last 4.09 we ran, and that's exactly what we went up there trying to run. If the piston would've lived another tenth of a second, we'd have been in, but that's how it works in this sport. The only number that counts is the final one.
"It's just really disappointing, and very frustrating, but we put ourselves in that bad spot. Nobody cheated us or took anything away from us. We got behind, smoking the tires yesterday, and we stayed behind. When we ran the first 4.14, earlier today, we all knew it wasn't going to be good enough to stick, and even though we still had a chance up until Tony ran, it wasn't much of a chance and you're never in a good spot when you have to rely on someone else's failure to keep you alive. We'll pack it up and head for Pomona for the last CSK round-up. That's all we can do."
