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Del Worsham struggled to find precious traction in Friday afternoon's first session, here at Atlanta Dragway, but he could once again take solace in the fact the vast majority of his colleagues were in the same proverbial boat. In a key late afternoon session, which was run about an hour late and under overcast skies, Worsham stepped up during crunch time, posting a strong 4.858 to land 6th after the first two sessions. A pair of sessions are on the docket for Saturday afternoon, and the new "top 12" qualifying system may get its first real workout here. Jerry Toliver was the driver who landed in the 12th spot, meaning his 4.911 was the slowest time to be officially recorded on Friday. The 9-driver group below Toliver, listed as "not yet qualified," simply have no official time heading into Saturday, and the group includes almost nothing but luminaries, including John Force, Gary Scelzi, Tommy Johnson, Jack Beckman, and others.
"That was a great lap, one of the better qualifying runs we've made so far this season," Worsham said. "Right before the run, my dad asked 'What's it going to take to run 4.85 out there?' so I guess he figured it out. My goal today was to come out of Q2 not only in the top 12, but in the top 8 because, unless we really get some strange weather tomorrow, it's going to be pretty hard to move up into the top half. Of course, there are some huge teams down there behind us, and some of them regularly do stuff you're sure isn't possible, but our focus will be on making the best possible run we can, under the conditions we're faced with. If it's possible for us to step up another notch, that's what we'll try to do. If 4.90 is the best you can run, we'll try to run the 4.90 and let everyone know we can run in the heat here. We won the race here, 17 years ago, by basically just outrunning everyone when conditions weren't all that good, so I'm ready for that. And if it stays good, and the clouds stick around without raining on us, we'll step up."
WORSHAM VAULTS TO No. 6 SPOT ON FRIDAY
Del Worsham struggled to find precious traction in Friday afternoon's first session, here at Atlanta Dragway, but he could once again take solace in the fact the vast majority of his colleagues were in the same proverbial boat. In a key late afternoon session, which was run about an hour late and under overcast skies, Worsham stepped up during crunch time, posting a strong 4.858 to land 6th after the first two sessions. A pair of sessions are on the docket for Saturday afternoon, and the new "top 12" qualifying system may get its first real workout here. Jerry Toliver was the driver who landed in the 12th spot, meaning his 4.911 was the slowest time to be officially recorded on Friday. The 9-driver group below Toliver, listed as "not yet qualified," simply have no official time heading into Saturday, and the group includes almost nothing but luminaries, including John Force, Gary Scelzi, Tommy Johnson, Jack Beckman, and others.
"That was a great lap, one of the better qualifying runs we've made so far this season," Worsham said. "Right before the run, my dad asked 'What's it going to take to run 4.85 out there?' so I guess he figured it out. My goal today was to come out of Q2 not only in the top 12, but in the top 8 because, unless we really get some strange weather tomorrow, it's going to be pretty hard to move up into the top half. Of course, there are some huge teams down there behind us, and some of them regularly do stuff you're sure isn't possible, but our focus will be on making the best possible run we can, under the conditions we're faced with. If it's possible for us to step up another notch, that's what we'll try to do. If 4.90 is the best you can run, we'll try to run the 4.90 and let everyone know we can run in the heat here. We won the race here, 17 years ago, by basically just outrunning everyone when conditions weren't all that good, so I'm ready for that. And if it stays good, and the clouds stick around without raining on us, we'll step up."
