NHRA News: Worshams always remain rock-solid despite ever-changing racing world (12/15/2002)

Worshams always remain rock-solid despite ever-changing racing world

Contributed by Bob Wilber
12/15/2002

"We weren't the quickest car out there this year but we raced on Sunday better than almost everyone."
– Del Worsham

Del Worsham considers his father Chuck to be his best friend. He also thinks of him as his boss, his partner, and his crew chief. Throughout a 12-year Funny Car career, 11 NHRA race victories, and countless highlights and frustrations, one thing has remained the same for the popular Checker-Schuck's-Kragen driver – his father has always been by his side.

This family operation has been a favorite of fans across America since Worsham's rookie season in 1991 when he stunned the racing world with two wins as a shy 21-year old. Through years of independent racing, during which they accumulated close friends and a bevy of loyal associate sponsors, the Worshams were clearly underdogs and overachievers.

As is often the case for under-budgeted sports franchises of any sort, the Worshams gave opportunity and responsibility to up-and-coming talent, who would then be lured away by the higher pay of the fully-sponsored teams. Former Worsham employees are scattered throughout the NHRA professional pits with nearly universal consistency, and the vast majority still think of the Worshams as their friends, and their time at Worsham Racing as invaluable.

Through it all, Del and Chuck Worsham simply continued to work, and learn, and trust each other. Soon after CSK Auto joined the team as primary sponsor in 1997, the key change in the Worsham camp was the ability to hire a crew of salaried employees, adding more professionalism and stability to the program.

The essence of the drag racing family, father Chuck (left) and son Del have been battling in the NHRA Funny Car wars for 12 years.

As the CSK sponsorship has grown, so has the entire Worsham team, from a group of high-energy, underpaid, miracle workers, to one of the top Funny Car teams in the world, with two full crews and a competitive budget. And with that competitive budget, Worsham Racing has not only been able to hire top quality people, but can now retain them as well.

No team is immune to change, though, and crewmembers still come and go for a variety of reasons. In the recent past, two crew chiefs have left the Team CSK program for new challenges, but Del and Chuck Worsham have simply kept on going. And with eight victories and two third-place point finishes in the last two years, the going seems to be pretty good.

A clear example of how the Worshams have built their program, and maintained its growth in the midst of change, is the crew chief saga of the past few seasons. When Rob Flynn joined Team CSK at the Denver event in 2000, the Worshams were searching for new ideas, and a new perspective, as they were trying to get the team out of a stagnant period of mid-pack qualifying and early-round losses. Flynn's impact was immediate.

"It was our first year with two cars, and starting up that program probably took something out of us," Del said. "We were searching for answers, and we got to one of those points where we were sort of stuck. Rob was available, we respected what he could add to the team, and we brought him in. From the day he got here we ran better."

Worsham has amassed 11 national event wins including eight in the last two seasons for his Checker-Schucks-Kragen race team.

Throughout a very successful 2001, Flynn and the Worshams created a tuning triumvirate that seemed to be clicking. They racked up four victories and a third-place finish in the points during what turned out to be a career year for Del. In 2002, they started with a runner-up finish in Pomona and a win in Phoenix, but then things started to slow and the team appeared to be searching for new direction once again.

"This sort of thing happens sometimes, to race teams, basketball teams, baseball teams, you name it," Del said. "We're good friends. We were all getting along and working hard but we got stuck in a deal where we weren't getting any better. Had we allowed the frustration to keep growing there would have been a good chance we wouldn't have stayed friends so we all agreed to go in new directions."

Rather than look outside for new talent, Del and his father simply trusted what they knew and what they could do, and they took over 100-percent of the tuning chores again. While such a significant change at the top of any organization could be expected to unsettle things even further before it began to create any benefits, Team CSK never missed a beat and the team's performance picked up almost immediately.

When 2002 ended, Worsham had duplicated his 2001 numbers to such a degree it was almost uncanny. With four race victories, 35 round wins, and a third-place finish in the points, the statistics were identical to his 2001 accomplishments. The totals were a clear testimony to the talent Del and Chuck Worsham possess.

Worsham has been a part of the invitation-only Budweiser Shootout for Funny Cars seven times.

"I've always been impressed with what my dad can do," Del said proudly. "I'm sure I'm a bit prejudiced because he's my dad but he taught me everything I know and he can tune this car as well as anyone. After Rob left, we just got to work and believed in ourselves and our great crew. There were a few races this year, when the track was giving everyone fits where my dad just out-tuned the other guys and made all the right calls. We weren't the quickest car out there this year but we raced on Sunday better than almost everyone.

"With all that said, there was still a lot of Rob Flynn in our car all year and probably always will be. I think some people split up and the egos get involved and you'll see the new crew chief throw everything out the window and start over. Since we just went back to our original deal and were tuning the car again, we didn't do that. We just kept refining what was working and began to make all the calls again."

Similar to the Flynn situation, the CSK blue team has also gone through significant changes of late, and the Worshams have attacked the issues the only way they know how.

"Our relationship with Dave Fletcher was another one of great friendship and mutual respect," Del said. "But this year the blue car seemed to get stuck in the same rut we were in back in 2000. Things weren't getting any better, and there didn't seem to be any light up ahead, so we all agreed to go different ways.

A hands-on team owner, Chuck tunes his son's car.

"We had quite a few crew chiefs dropping by to let us know they'd like the job but all along we were thinking we'd stay with who we knew and do this our way. Our way was to promote two very deserving young guys, Marc Denner and Chris Cunningham, and hand them the responsibility they've earned, by naming them co-crew chiefs on the blue team.

"Fletch did a lot of great things with the blue car, and it would be just as stupid to ignore all that as it would have been to throw away everything Rob Flynn brought to us. We're just going to build on the foundation they have over there, and Marc and Chris are going to do a great job. I have a great gut feeling about how Johnny Gray's car is going to run in 2003."

After the two crew chiefs departed, much of the blue team crew headed off to new challenges, yet Del has never felt more confident.

"We have great people here," he said. "We've moved the blue team out to Anaheim so all of our people are under one roof. Johnny is a great driver and I've always prided myself on being able to get the car from A to B pretty well. My dad is here, I'm here, Marc and Chris are here, and most of our crew guys from last year are here. We've added some new crew guys, people we really wanted on this team, and they're excited to be here. We're all excited to be here. This is a pretty good place to work, really."

Del should know about good places to work. He's been working alongside his best friend since childhood. And the father/son duo has done pretty well for themselves.

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