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During the fourth and final qualifying session on Saturday, veteran Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta was killed in high-speed accident.
Del Worsham was preparing to make his final lap during session No. 4 here at Raceway Park, when he saw Scott Kalitta's DHL Funny Car explode a motor in the lights, resulting in a Toyota body-shredding accident so familiar to the CSK driver. Like everyone in attendance, Worsham watched as Kalitta's car hit the sand trap at a high rate of speed, much like he himself did in Pomona in 2006. Immediately after witnessing the crash, and well before word of Kalitta's status had filtered back to the staging lanes, a visibly shaken Worsham instructed his team to turn around and return to the CSK pit area.
"That was so hard to watch, and impossible to believe," Worsham said. "I've seen the footage of my wreck in Pomona, and they were eerily similar but Scott was going far faster than I was. I'm just sick right now. I've known Scott forever, and I know all the people at Kalitta Racing, from Connie on down, as well as I know anyone out here. We knew it wasn't good as soon as we saw it, but these cars are so safe there's a huge part of you that just keeps believing that the word will get back to us right away, that he's either out of the car and walking around or has minor injuries like a few broken bones. When it's just silent, for so long, we all know that's not good.
"We think we're pretty tough in this sport. We have to try to convince ourselves we're bulletproof to even do this for a living, and I for one am one of the lucky people who have walked away from bad crashes, but it about brings you to your knees to witness this and have it all sink in. It's going to be a while before we know how to deal with this, before we can move on from it emotionally, and I can't even imagine what this weight feels like to Doug and Connie, and everyone at Kalitta Racing. My heart goes out to everyone. Scott Kalitta was a champion, in every sense of the word, and he died doing what he naturally loved to do, pushing his car to the limit to try to get in the field here. And you know, he did that too, on that run. Racing is a very distant thought right now. We'll come out tomorrow and do our jobs, and we'll try to win one for Scott Kalitta."
After the accident, racing was suspended and then finally cancelled for the rest of the day. The field is set as it stood after Kalitta's run (he moved from outside the field into the 13th spot on the fatal run) and Worsham will face Gary Scelzi in round one.
SOMBER AND STUNNED WORSHAM REMAINS 5th ON A TRAGIC DAY
During the fourth and final qualifying session on Saturday, veteran Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta was killed in high-speed accident.
Del Worsham was preparing to make his final lap during session No. 4 here at Raceway Park, when he saw Scott Kalitta's DHL Funny Car explode a motor in the lights, resulting in a Toyota body-shredding accident so familiar to the CSK driver. Like everyone in attendance, Worsham watched as Kalitta's car hit the sand trap at a high rate of speed, much like he himself did in Pomona in 2006. Immediately after witnessing the crash, and well before word of Kalitta's status had filtered back to the staging lanes, a visibly shaken Worsham instructed his team to turn around and return to the CSK pit area.
"That was so hard to watch, and impossible to believe," Worsham said. "I've seen the footage of my wreck in Pomona, and they were eerily similar but Scott was going far faster than I was. I'm just sick right now. I've known Scott forever, and I know all the people at Kalitta Racing, from Connie on down, as well as I know anyone out here. We knew it wasn't good as soon as we saw it, but these cars are so safe there's a huge part of you that just keeps believing that the word will get back to us right away, that he's either out of the car and walking around or has minor injuries like a few broken bones. When it's just silent, for so long, we all know that's not good.
"We think we're pretty tough in this sport. We have to try to convince ourselves we're bulletproof to even do this for a living, and I for one am one of the lucky people who have walked away from bad crashes, but it about brings you to your knees to witness this and have it all sink in. It's going to be a while before we know how to deal with this, before we can move on from it emotionally, and I can't even imagine what this weight feels like to Doug and Connie, and everyone at Kalitta Racing. My heart goes out to everyone. Scott Kalitta was a champion, in every sense of the word, and he died doing what he naturally loved to do, pushing his car to the limit to try to get in the field here. And you know, he did that too, on that run. Racing is a very distant thought right now. We'll come out tomorrow and do our jobs, and we'll try to win one for Scott Kalitta."
After the accident, racing was suspended and then finally cancelled for the rest of the day. The field is set as it stood after Kalitta's run (he moved from outside the field into the 13th spot on the fatal run) and Worsham will face Gary Scelzi in round one.
