WORSHAM'S 2ND-ROUND FINISH IS GOOD, BUT NOT THE GOAL
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Del Worsham wanted to win the race. Period, end of concept. Qualifying in the No. 3 spot, running well all weekend, and defeating Gary Scelzi in round one were all major accomplishments and well appreciated, but a disappointing loss to Jack Beckman in round two was simply not part of the script.
As written, the story line did include three very solid qualifying laps, with Worsham posting a 4.188 in Q1 (good enough for the 9th spot after one) followed by a very big, very clutch, very impressive 4.074 in Q2, as the merciless sun set on zMAX and the header flames became visible. It was exactly the run Worsham wanted.
"We were 'all in' on that one, just like Jim Head said before the run," Worsham said. "We're not in the Countdown and we've lost our sponsor for next year, so why not just stand on it and put all the chips right in the middle of the table? We're not being shy from here on out, I can promise you that. It also wasn't a wild guess, or anything like that. We had a really good idea what the track would hold, and we went up there trying to run a 4.07 or a 4.06, figuring that sort of lap would put us right at the top. We just had to have the guts to shoot for it, and we did."
The run did place Worsham in the lofty No. 3 spot and, for those paying attention to such details, that should not come as a surprise. After failing to qualify in Chicago, in early June, Worsham has not only made the field at nine straight races, but his qualifying spot has been represented by a single digit at every one of those, with only a pair of 9th place positions keeping him from a streak of nine straight top-half placements.
With a scorching sun, high humidity, and a seriously hot track facing the pros on Saturday, the lineup shuffling was relegated to the four open positions and just a couple of runs good enough to move into the top 12. Worsham stayed right in his No. 3 spot, and yet managed to put a solid 4.140 on the board in Q3, when eggs could apparently be fried on the starting line.
"It was brutal for everyone on Saturday, just a scorcher, but the fans hung in there and got every ounce of fun out of it they could," Worsham said. "It's obvious when we have first-timers in the audience, and here in the land of NASCAR it was really clear that we had a lot of circle-track fans coming here just to check out this whole drag racing thing. I didn't see anyone who wasn't loving the whole experience and smiling from ear to ear. I think they liked what they saw.
"For us, we knew Saturday was just a prep day for Sunday, searching for the right tune-up we could get through the first round with. We really felt if we could get past the first one, my buddy Gary Scelzi, we had a chance to do a lot of good things here. After all the tough first-round races we've had lately, where it seems like no matter how well we qualify we still get a world-beater in the first round, we got another legend in Gary, so we just went up there to race the track."
If the race was against the track, Worsham won on all counts. His 4.154 was clean, straight, and nearly flawless. And, as opposed to the happenings at recent races, where Worsham has been known to run well enough to beat anyone but the guy in the other lane, this time it paid off. Scelzi's mount hazed the tires while Worsham's CSK Impala strode right down the boulevard to a big round win.
Just minutes later, Jack Beckman took out Jim Head, and did so by setting low E.T. of the round, with a jaw-dropping 4.110-second clocking. There was no getting around it; Worsham had his hands full in round two.
As the sun continued to bake the surface, and the left lane began to look a bit dodgy in terms of starting line grip, Worsham was relegated to that side of the track by Beckman's team, who had lane choice due to their stellar first-round lap. This one, sadly, didn't last long, as Worsham was up in smoke just after hitting the throttle. Though he expertly was able to feather the pedal enough to get the big Goodyear slicks to hook back up, Beckman never faltered and Worsham had no chance to overtake him.
"That was partly track and partly us," he said. "We knew we had to step on it, but we should have known better than to make such a big change in this heat. Instead of racing the track, we raced Jack a little bit, and that cost us. Even still, though, the lane was definitely a bit iffy, so maybe it was a combination of us being too aggressive and lane choice hurting us. It doesn't matter, because we lost and that stinks. We came here to win."
If there was one clear winner on this weekend, it was zMAX Dragway. The stunning new "Bellagio of drag strips" not only lived up to its advance hype, it seemed to exceed expectations at every turn. As for the Carolina fans; they came out in massive numbers and clearly enjoyed themselves, while the Charlotte-area media covered the race with front-page placement and rave reviews.
It wasn't the outcome Del Worsham was seeking but it was a very solid weekend, at a magnificent new venue, and the results pointed toward a strong finish in 2008.
The spoiler role continues...
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/d_worsham.jpg" alt="d_worsham" align="right"borders="0"/>
Del Worsham wanted to win the race. Period, end of concept. Qualifying in the No. 3 spot, running well all weekend, and defeating Gary Scelzi in round one were all major accomplishments and well appreciated, but a disappointing loss to Jack Beckman in round two was simply not part of the script.
As written, the story line did include three very solid qualifying laps, with Worsham posting a 4.188 in Q1 (good enough for the 9th spot after one) followed by a very big, very clutch, very impressive 4.074 in Q2, as the merciless sun set on zMAX and the header flames became visible. It was exactly the run Worsham wanted.
"We were 'all in' on that one, just like Jim Head said before the run," Worsham said. "We're not in the Countdown and we've lost our sponsor for next year, so why not just stand on it and put all the chips right in the middle of the table? We're not being shy from here on out, I can promise you that. It also wasn't a wild guess, or anything like that. We had a really good idea what the track would hold, and we went up there trying to run a 4.07 or a 4.06, figuring that sort of lap would put us right at the top. We just had to have the guts to shoot for it, and we did."
The run did place Worsham in the lofty No. 3 spot and, for those paying attention to such details, that should not come as a surprise. After failing to qualify in Chicago, in early June, Worsham has not only made the field at nine straight races, but his qualifying spot has been represented by a single digit at every one of those, with only a pair of 9th place positions keeping him from a streak of nine straight top-half placements.
With a scorching sun, high humidity, and a seriously hot track facing the pros on Saturday, the lineup shuffling was relegated to the four open positions and just a couple of runs good enough to move into the top 12. Worsham stayed right in his No. 3 spot, and yet managed to put a solid 4.140 on the board in Q3, when eggs could apparently be fried on the starting line.
"It was brutal for everyone on Saturday, just a scorcher, but the fans hung in there and got every ounce of fun out of it they could," Worsham said. "It's obvious when we have first-timers in the audience, and here in the land of NASCAR it was really clear that we had a lot of circle-track fans coming here just to check out this whole drag racing thing. I didn't see anyone who wasn't loving the whole experience and smiling from ear to ear. I think they liked what they saw.
"For us, we knew Saturday was just a prep day for Sunday, searching for the right tune-up we could get through the first round with. We really felt if we could get past the first one, my buddy Gary Scelzi, we had a chance to do a lot of good things here. After all the tough first-round races we've had lately, where it seems like no matter how well we qualify we still get a world-beater in the first round, we got another legend in Gary, so we just went up there to race the track."
If the race was against the track, Worsham won on all counts. His 4.154 was clean, straight, and nearly flawless. And, as opposed to the happenings at recent races, where Worsham has been known to run well enough to beat anyone but the guy in the other lane, this time it paid off. Scelzi's mount hazed the tires while Worsham's CSK Impala strode right down the boulevard to a big round win.
Just minutes later, Jack Beckman took out Jim Head, and did so by setting low E.T. of the round, with a jaw-dropping 4.110-second clocking. There was no getting around it; Worsham had his hands full in round two.
As the sun continued to bake the surface, and the left lane began to look a bit dodgy in terms of starting line grip, Worsham was relegated to that side of the track by Beckman's team, who had lane choice due to their stellar first-round lap. This one, sadly, didn't last long, as Worsham was up in smoke just after hitting the throttle. Though he expertly was able to feather the pedal enough to get the big Goodyear slicks to hook back up, Beckman never faltered and Worsham had no chance to overtake him.
"That was partly track and partly us," he said. "We knew we had to step on it, but we should have known better than to make such a big change in this heat. Instead of racing the track, we raced Jack a little bit, and that cost us. Even still, though, the lane was definitely a bit iffy, so maybe it was a combination of us being too aggressive and lane choice hurting us. It doesn't matter, because we lost and that stinks. We came here to win."
If there was one clear winner on this weekend, it was zMAX Dragway. The stunning new "Bellagio of drag strips" not only lived up to its advance hype, it seemed to exceed expectations at every turn. As for the Carolina fans; they came out in massive numbers and clearly enjoyed themselves, while the Charlotte-area media covered the race with front-page placement and rave reviews.
It wasn't the outcome Del Worsham was seeking but it was a very solid weekend, at a magnificent new venue, and the results pointed toward a strong finish in 2008.
The spoiler role continues...
