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INDIANAPOLIS (August 28, 2007) -- Del Worsham was the center of attention for quite a few rainy days in eastern Pennsylvania, during the most recent event on the NHRA tour. His improbable assault on the final spot in the NHRA Countdown To The Championship had proceeded through four of the six necessary steps, but the event's fourth major rain delay moved the semi-finals all the way out to Wednesday, and that's when the adventure came to a close. Worsham had out-qualified Jim Head by the requisite number of spots (and had earned his fourth career No. 1 spot while doing so), had seen Head lose in round one, and had won two rounds himself. He needed to win the race to pass Head for the No. 8 spot in the playoffs, and seemed to be on a roll during eliminations on Monday, but when more wet stuff pushed the third round back by nearly 48 hours, his momentum was lost, and so was a spot in the Countdown.
Now, as he heads to Indianapolis for this week's prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, Worsham will admit disappointment over his current 9th place standing, but he's also just as quick to talk about his increased performance and his motivation. As far as he is concerned, it's business as usual for the rest of the 2007 campaign, and there's no better place to get back to business than Indy.
"Since I started driving in 1991, we've only come into Indy as really serious contenders for the championship a couple of times, even though we've had some great seasons over all the years," Worsham said. "Usually, we've come to this point in the season just thinking of winning the next round, or winning the next race, and we'd let the points thing take care of itself. The only thing that's different this year is that we know we can't finish any higher than 9th on the points sheet, so basically we're just not even going to worry about that. We're going to show up at every race, with the same strong race car we've had for the last couple of months, and try to beat everyone.
"I have a ton of respect for all the Countdown drivers, but this is all business and it's our job to try to beat them all. In other sports, they call the non-playoff teams 'the spoilers' so I guess that's what we are, and we'd like to spoil the fun for as many of the playoff teams as we can. I guess the best sign of how well we're doing will come from the other teams themselves, once they know they have to run us in any given round. I want them to think it's the worst possible situation when they have to face the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team with so much on the line. We're disappointed we're not in it, and as the hours and days went by in Reading it was pretty easy to really
begin to think we might pull that miracle off, but we're going to Indy to prove we're as good as any of those other teams."
Worsham's illustrious career is now in its 17th full season, and while he has collected 21 Wally trophies over that span of time, it's the one from Indy in 2005 that sits just a little higher in his mental trophy case. On that magical weekend, Worsham drove his CSK Chevy to wins in both the Skoal Showdown and the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, completing the rare and coveted "double up" on Labor Day. Until he wins a POWERade Championship, it's likely to remain his most prized accomplishment.
"My first win, back in 1991, was huge, and I'll never forget one minute of that day in Atlanta, but Indy in 2005 really has to be the career highlight to this point," Worsham said. "There are certain weekends where everything is a struggle, and it's enormously hard to get anything to go right for you, and then there are weekends when it all just comes together and falls into place. Indy in '05 was like that.
We had so much confidence, and had such a good handle on the track, I was envisioning winning the whole thing very early in the week, and I still remember every second of the celebration. Being a Mac Tools team, it was all the sweeter to win the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals.
"I play a little bit of golf and just about everyone on the team bowls a lot, and in both of those sports you have those days where it's either impossibly hard or it's really easy. And either way, you can't believe how different it is from the day before. Drag racing can be the same way, because there a days when getting the car to the other end of the track seems like the most challenging thing in the world, and the next time around it's all right there in front of you and you just go out and do it. We just went out there and made lap after lap that weekend, won the whole thing, and got a lot of those big oversized checks. They're all still on the wall in our shop."
There's no doubt the eight members of the Funny Car Countdown field all have visions of accepting one of those giant checks at the end of the day on Monday, knowing a win at Indy would give them a huge boost in the Countdown points. Del Worsham also shares that vision, and if he has his way he'll keep all eight of those eager drivers away from the prize.
NO LACK OF MOTIVATION FOR WORSHAM, DESPITE COUNTDOWN MISS
INDIANAPOLIS (August 28, 2007) -- Del Worsham was the center of attention for quite a few rainy days in eastern Pennsylvania, during the most recent event on the NHRA tour. His improbable assault on the final spot in the NHRA Countdown To The Championship had proceeded through four of the six necessary steps, but the event's fourth major rain delay moved the semi-finals all the way out to Wednesday, and that's when the adventure came to a close. Worsham had out-qualified Jim Head by the requisite number of spots (and had earned his fourth career No. 1 spot while doing so), had seen Head lose in round one, and had won two rounds himself. He needed to win the race to pass Head for the No. 8 spot in the playoffs, and seemed to be on a roll during eliminations on Monday, but when more wet stuff pushed the third round back by nearly 48 hours, his momentum was lost, and so was a spot in the Countdown.
Now, as he heads to Indianapolis for this week's prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, Worsham will admit disappointment over his current 9th place standing, but he's also just as quick to talk about his increased performance and his motivation. As far as he is concerned, it's business as usual for the rest of the 2007 campaign, and there's no better place to get back to business than Indy.
"Since I started driving in 1991, we've only come into Indy as really serious contenders for the championship a couple of times, even though we've had some great seasons over all the years," Worsham said. "Usually, we've come to this point in the season just thinking of winning the next round, or winning the next race, and we'd let the points thing take care of itself. The only thing that's different this year is that we know we can't finish any higher than 9th on the points sheet, so basically we're just not even going to worry about that. We're going to show up at every race, with the same strong race car we've had for the last couple of months, and try to beat everyone.
"I have a ton of respect for all the Countdown drivers, but this is all business and it's our job to try to beat them all. In other sports, they call the non-playoff teams 'the spoilers' so I guess that's what we are, and we'd like to spoil the fun for as many of the playoff teams as we can. I guess the best sign of how well we're doing will come from the other teams themselves, once they know they have to run us in any given round. I want them to think it's the worst possible situation when they have to face the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team with so much on the line. We're disappointed we're not in it, and as the hours and days went by in Reading it was pretty easy to really
begin to think we might pull that miracle off, but we're going to Indy to prove we're as good as any of those other teams."
Worsham's illustrious career is now in its 17th full season, and while he has collected 21 Wally trophies over that span of time, it's the one from Indy in 2005 that sits just a little higher in his mental trophy case. On that magical weekend, Worsham drove his CSK Chevy to wins in both the Skoal Showdown and the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, completing the rare and coveted "double up" on Labor Day. Until he wins a POWERade Championship, it's likely to remain his most prized accomplishment.
"My first win, back in 1991, was huge, and I'll never forget one minute of that day in Atlanta, but Indy in 2005 really has to be the career highlight to this point," Worsham said. "There are certain weekends where everything is a struggle, and it's enormously hard to get anything to go right for you, and then there are weekends when it all just comes together and falls into place. Indy in '05 was like that.
We had so much confidence, and had such a good handle on the track, I was envisioning winning the whole thing very early in the week, and I still remember every second of the celebration. Being a Mac Tools team, it was all the sweeter to win the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals.
"I play a little bit of golf and just about everyone on the team bowls a lot, and in both of those sports you have those days where it's either impossibly hard or it's really easy. And either way, you can't believe how different it is from the day before. Drag racing can be the same way, because there a days when getting the car to the other end of the track seems like the most challenging thing in the world, and the next time around it's all right there in front of you and you just go out and do it. We just went out there and made lap after lap that weekend, won the whole thing, and got a lot of those big oversized checks. They're all still on the wall in our shop."
There's no doubt the eight members of the Funny Car Countdown field all have visions of accepting one of those giant checks at the end of the day on Monday, knowing a win at Indy would give them a huge boost in the Countdown points. Del Worsham also shares that vision, and if he has his way he'll keep all eight of those eager drivers away from the prize.
