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Del Worsham could only shake his head and say "What are you going to do?" after a sterling first-round performance left him on the sidelines on a rainy Sunday in Bristol. After a number of frustrating rain delays, including one that was instituted after the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team had fired the motor on its first trip to the starting line, Worsham and Robert Hight finally lit the engines in earnest and then put on a terrific power display between the rain drops. Worsham's 4.790, at a startling 327.43 mph, was not just his quickest of the year, but also his fastest, and on top of those two stellar attributes it was also clearly his "best" lap of the season. It simply came against the wrong guy, as Hight clicked through the lights with a jaw-dropping 4.746 to take the win. In the end, 16 cars finally completed the initial round, and Worsham's lap was the second-quickest of the bunch, but it came against the quickest.
"You don't have to like it, but you can hardly be mad about it," Worsham said. "We've had a few little issues in various spots on the track all weekend, and we approached each one of those problem areas with a really good plan. It's not often, with these Funny Cars, when you can look at the data after the run and say it actually did everything it was supposed to do. When you qualify with a 4.84, and you know you have to step up a bit to win the first round, biting off any more than what we did would've been too much. We aimed to run a 4.79, and when we watched the first four pairs run anywhere from 4.79 on up to 4.87 I thought we had a legitimate chance if the car would just do what we wanted it to do. It did, but the guy in the other lane didn't follow the script.
"It's just not your day when we make your all-around best lap of the year, where everything looks right on the computer and all the problem areas were fixed, and the car comes back with nothing hurt, and yet you still get spanked. It's just not your day."
It was almost not Worsham's weekend, but a cushion of a few thousandths of a second played a big role in how he qualified. After smoking the tires on his first Friday pass, Worsham laid down a 4.842 during the evening session, and at the time he was skeptical that such a number would keep him in the all-important top 12. At the end of the day, three other drivers had also posted 4.84s, but Worsham's was barely the quickest and he held the final spot in the top 12, meaning his time at least carried over to Saturday while the other three competitors had their E.T.s erased and had to start over.
"That was big couple of thousandths right there, because as it turned out no one could run an .84 on Saturday, so we stayed right there in the 12th spot," Worsham said. "To be honest, we would've run the car much differently on Saturday if we hadn't been pretty safely in, but I'm really glad we didn't have to worry about needing to force our way into the show on the last run. It was much better for us to be able to use those Saturday runs as attempts to fix some of the problem areas, so even though we didn't do anything stellar out there, it all contributed to what we could run today."
After beautiful blue skies and cool temperatures treated racers and fans alike to a gorgeous day of racing on Saturday, Sunday dawned with low clouds overhead and large green blobs of rain on the radar screen. With such questionable conditions in play, most teams held off on their warm-ups to see what the weather was going to do, and that sort of adjustment often takes teams, and drivers, out of their routines. Such was the case, in the CSK camp, but the team and the driver adapted superbly and everything was finalized and buttoned-up with time to spare.
"We had an invitation to go up to Bruton Smith's suite before the race, at a specific time that would normally have been after the warm-up, but we hadn't actually fired the motor yet when it was time to go," Worsham said. "You don't get invited to meet Mr. Smith's guests, up in his personal suite, very often, so we adjusted everything so that I could still go up there, meet a lot of great people, and sign some autographs. The track staff people hauled us up there and back in a golf cart, so we flew back to the pit, got warmed up, then went up for driver introductions right on time. It was kind of hectic, but it all played out like clockwork.
"Then, Top Fuel went off just about on schedule, it was time to get in the car and get amped up, and it started raining. After that it was get ready, wait, get ready, wait again for more than an hour. We finally pulled up to run, fired the motor, and they shut us right back off. It's hard to stay focused when it's like that, but we were all in the deal together, so no one had an advantage."
Worsham did have one crew member ride back to the pit on a scooter, to grab a jug of racing fuel so that the tank could be topped off, but other than that it was simply a waiting game. As the light rain continued to fall, both Worsham and Hight exited their cars and removed their helmets, to sit it out in more comfort.
Once the drops stopped descending, and the track was dried, the CSK Impala and the Auto Club Ford were pushed back to the line, to the cheers of the Bristol crowd. The motors were fired, the burn-outs were completed, and the cars pulled to the line. Worsham rolled in deep enough to light both sets of bulbs at once, then waited for Hight as the tension grew. At the flash of amber, the CSK machine was away first and both cars were firing on all eight, tearing down the track at a phenomenal pace. By half-track, they were even. At the finish line, as Worsham flew across the stripe, it was Hight grabbing the win light with his back-breaking 4.74, ending Worsham's day.
"We did everything we could do and have a lot to be proud of but, like I said before; you don't have to like it," Worsham stated. "With the progress we made here, I think the car will continue run more consistently and not be so edgy. That was one of the key things for us today. We wanted to ramp the power up, without the car being right on the edge of spinning the tires. We did everything we set out to do. We just lost, that's all."
If Worsham's run was an indication of things to come, he has many round wins in his future. But on this day, he didn't have to like the outcome.
WORSHAM'S BEST LAP OF THE YEAR NOT ENOUGH IN ROUND ONE
Del Worsham could only shake his head and say "What are you going to do?" after a sterling first-round performance left him on the sidelines on a rainy Sunday in Bristol. After a number of frustrating rain delays, including one that was instituted after the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team had fired the motor on its first trip to the starting line, Worsham and Robert Hight finally lit the engines in earnest and then put on a terrific power display between the rain drops. Worsham's 4.790, at a startling 327.43 mph, was not just his quickest of the year, but also his fastest, and on top of those two stellar attributes it was also clearly his "best" lap of the season. It simply came against the wrong guy, as Hight clicked through the lights with a jaw-dropping 4.746 to take the win. In the end, 16 cars finally completed the initial round, and Worsham's lap was the second-quickest of the bunch, but it came against the quickest.
"You don't have to like it, but you can hardly be mad about it," Worsham said. "We've had a few little issues in various spots on the track all weekend, and we approached each one of those problem areas with a really good plan. It's not often, with these Funny Cars, when you can look at the data after the run and say it actually did everything it was supposed to do. When you qualify with a 4.84, and you know you have to step up a bit to win the first round, biting off any more than what we did would've been too much. We aimed to run a 4.79, and when we watched the first four pairs run anywhere from 4.79 on up to 4.87 I thought we had a legitimate chance if the car would just do what we wanted it to do. It did, but the guy in the other lane didn't follow the script.
"It's just not your day when we make your all-around best lap of the year, where everything looks right on the computer and all the problem areas were fixed, and the car comes back with nothing hurt, and yet you still get spanked. It's just not your day."
It was almost not Worsham's weekend, but a cushion of a few thousandths of a second played a big role in how he qualified. After smoking the tires on his first Friday pass, Worsham laid down a 4.842 during the evening session, and at the time he was skeptical that such a number would keep him in the all-important top 12. At the end of the day, three other drivers had also posted 4.84s, but Worsham's was barely the quickest and he held the final spot in the top 12, meaning his time at least carried over to Saturday while the other three competitors had their E.T.s erased and had to start over.
"That was big couple of thousandths right there, because as it turned out no one could run an .84 on Saturday, so we stayed right there in the 12th spot," Worsham said. "To be honest, we would've run the car much differently on Saturday if we hadn't been pretty safely in, but I'm really glad we didn't have to worry about needing to force our way into the show on the last run. It was much better for us to be able to use those Saturday runs as attempts to fix some of the problem areas, so even though we didn't do anything stellar out there, it all contributed to what we could run today."
After beautiful blue skies and cool temperatures treated racers and fans alike to a gorgeous day of racing on Saturday, Sunday dawned with low clouds overhead and large green blobs of rain on the radar screen. With such questionable conditions in play, most teams held off on their warm-ups to see what the weather was going to do, and that sort of adjustment often takes teams, and drivers, out of their routines. Such was the case, in the CSK camp, but the team and the driver adapted superbly and everything was finalized and buttoned-up with time to spare.
"We had an invitation to go up to Bruton Smith's suite before the race, at a specific time that would normally have been after the warm-up, but we hadn't actually fired the motor yet when it was time to go," Worsham said. "You don't get invited to meet Mr. Smith's guests, up in his personal suite, very often, so we adjusted everything so that I could still go up there, meet a lot of great people, and sign some autographs. The track staff people hauled us up there and back in a golf cart, so we flew back to the pit, got warmed up, then went up for driver introductions right on time. It was kind of hectic, but it all played out like clockwork.
"Then, Top Fuel went off just about on schedule, it was time to get in the car and get amped up, and it started raining. After that it was get ready, wait, get ready, wait again for more than an hour. We finally pulled up to run, fired the motor, and they shut us right back off. It's hard to stay focused when it's like that, but we were all in the deal together, so no one had an advantage."
Worsham did have one crew member ride back to the pit on a scooter, to grab a jug of racing fuel so that the tank could be topped off, but other than that it was simply a waiting game. As the light rain continued to fall, both Worsham and Hight exited their cars and removed their helmets, to sit it out in more comfort.
Once the drops stopped descending, and the track was dried, the CSK Impala and the Auto Club Ford were pushed back to the line, to the cheers of the Bristol crowd. The motors were fired, the burn-outs were completed, and the cars pulled to the line. Worsham rolled in deep enough to light both sets of bulbs at once, then waited for Hight as the tension grew. At the flash of amber, the CSK machine was away first and both cars were firing on all eight, tearing down the track at a phenomenal pace. By half-track, they were even. At the finish line, as Worsham flew across the stripe, it was Hight grabbing the win light with his back-breaking 4.74, ending Worsham's day.
"We did everything we could do and have a lot to be proud of but, like I said before; you don't have to like it," Worsham stated. "With the progress we made here, I think the car will continue run more consistently and not be so edgy. That was one of the key things for us today. We wanted to ramp the power up, without the car being right on the edge of spinning the tires. We did everything we set out to do. We just lost, that's all."
If Worsham's run was an indication of things to come, he has many round wins in his future. But on this day, he didn't have to like the outcome.
