Championship Drag Racing

Lucas Oil NHRA Route 66 Nationals
Chicago
(May 29-June 1)

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Del Worsham Checker Schuck's Kragen Funny Car

Reports: Sunday Saturday Friday Pre-race

Chicago, Sunday: For a guy who had just been eliminated from the event in the second round, smoking the tires, Del Worsham meant what he said when he commented "Two thousandths of second, on a run where we ran great, might have just cost us a trophy."

Worsham was referring to the fact he'd run 4.791 in his first round victory over Frank Pedregon, while Whit Bazemore had run 4.789 in his win. With the two being paired up in round two, Bazemore's two-thousandths edge gave him lane choice. Under normal circumstances, that wouldn't have bothered Worsham at the normally fair Route 66 Raceway, but on this day the circumstances were far from normal. During the second round race directly ahead of Worsham and Bazemore, Ron Capps blew a motor and dropped a significant amount of oil on the left lane of the race track.

Despite a valiant effort by the always meticulous Safety Safari, there was no doubt the left lane had suffered some real problems, so Bazemore and his team made the decision to switch lanes and force Worsham to race through the recently oiled section. Sure enough, while Bazemore was hazing the tires in the right lane, Worsham blew them off in the left, right where the oil-down had taken place.

"Let me make two things totally clear. This was not at all Ron Capps' fault, he's a great driver who was just trying to win and I'd have kept my foot in it too," Worsham said. "And secondly, it was absolutely not the Safety Safari's fault. They are the best in the business and usually the lane they clean ends up the better one, but this was no standard oil-down. They could only do what was humanly possible. And on top of all that, it really wasn't our fault. We ran 4.79 in round one, the fourth time we've run in the 4.70's ever, and the second time this weekend, but Bazemore ran just a hair better and got lane choice. It's a lousy way to lose, but that's drag racing. I can't believe I said that, though. I hate that saying."

This weekend, in total, provided a widely disparate view of how things can go in Team CSK territory. While the red team plowed through qualifying well, including a new career best 4.776 for Worsham on Saturday evening, the blue team suffered an engine fire that damaged their primary body, a tire smoker, and a soft 4.88 in the three sessions completed here. On Sunday, Johnny Gray started from the 15th spot, while Worsham landed in the number five position. Gray's ladder spot granted him a date with points leader Tony Pedregon, while Worsham matched up with Frank Pedregon.

"We firmly thought we had a big surprise for Tony," Gray said. "We found some things that kept us from running well, we had Del's 4.77 tune up to look at, and I think all of us expected to step up a full tenth and send the points leader home."

Prior to Gray's match-up, though, Worsham faced Tony's brother Frankie Pedregon and posted his 4.79 to take the win light. Fresh on the heels of his 4.77 on Saturday, it was hard not to feel confident on the red side of the CSK pit.

Gray then lined up next to Tony Pedregon, and launched hard. 300-feet down the track, the blue CSK Pontiac banged a motor, pitched its body in the air, and came to a rest beside the retaining wall, with the blue and white Checker, Schuck's, Kragen body laying on the racing surface, upside down, behind it.

"We had a small problem, which became a bigger problem, and it was enough of a bang to lift the body," Gray said. "After the engine fire on Friday, we were only about 90% done fixing our primary body prior to first round, and we decided to go with this back-up body. That's the good news, but the bad news was this body has a bit of a worn out and loose latch. A bang like this one shouldn't have lifted the body off it, but the latch gave way and we tossed the body in the air. I guess we were a little hard on parts this weekend, but I bet we got some good TV time out of it."

Gray's spectacular loss left Worsham on his own in the CSK camp, and when he and Bazemore lined up, watched the oil down and subsequent 40-minute clean up, the two-thousandth's edge in e.t. allowed Bazemore to move to the right lane, forced Worsham into the left, and ended Team CSK's day.

"We didn't do a thing wrong here, but we're out in round two," said a disappointed Worsham. "We ran great, we set a new career best and ran two 4.70's back-to-back, but we just barely lost lane choice there, and a huge oil-down made that a much bigger issue than it normally is at this track. It's hard to accept it, but we have to."

A much needed weekend off is in store for the team, before they head to Columbus for the Pontiac Excitement Nationals two weeks from now. Both Del Worsham and Johnny Gray plan to arrive in Ohio with fresh parts, fresh attitudes, and perhaps a little better luck.

Chicago, Saturday: Del Worsham improved to a 4.838, landing in the No. 9 spot with one lap remaining:

"It's good to improve, but that wasn't what we wanted. We dropped a cylinder down there and burned through the piston. If we can get it to go A to B without dropping a hole, it will run 4.77. That's the idea."

Worsham then blasted to a new career best, a 4.776, to grab the No. 5 spot in this stout field:

"I actually called that one in the staging lanes. I turned to my wife Connie and said we'd run a 4.77, but as great as that felt it was actually slowing down at the end. If it wouldn't have been nibbling at itself down there it would have run even quicker, but I'm absolutely not complaining. It took us about a year and a half to lower that career number (Worsham's prior best was a 4.778, run at Reading in the fall of 2001) and it feels great. I think we have enough to play here tomorrow, but like always the toughest round is going to be the first one."

Worsham will face Frank Pedregon in round one. He has not faced Pedregon this season.

Chicago, Friday: Del Worsham posted a 4.910, at 311.34 mph, to grab the No. 7 spot after one session:

"I don't know why we were so down on power, but you can trust me that we weren't up there trying to run a 4.91. It went down there nice and smooth, but it just didn't make the power we wanted. Apparently we just missed a little on our tuning, and left both the red and the blue car too soft. It's going to be a pretty interesting session tonight, it always is on Friday night at Route 66, so we're not planning on being bashful for this either."

Chicago, pre-race: In 2001, Del Worsham came to Route 66 Raceway and picked up a huge springtime win on his way to four victories and a third place points finish that season. In 2002, he did it again, and coincidentally managed to again win four total races and finish third in NHRA POWERade points in the Funny Car class.

Entering this weekend's Lucas Oil Route 66 NHRA Nationals, the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen driver would certainly love to make it a Chicago "three-peat" in the town where a certain Mr. Jordan and his teammates coined the phrase. But beyond the difficult challenge of winning any race, much less one of the quickest and fastest on the NHRA tour, for three straight years, Worsham is focused on qualifying well, winning rounds, and letting the end results total up as they may.

"We've been really fortunate to win this race two years in a row, which even to me is kind of unbelievable," Worsham said. "We enter every race trying to win, and hoping to win, and this weekend will be no different. Our only goal is to qualify well, and then run as well as we're capable on Sunday. We hope that will be good enough to win the race, but if it's not we want to win as many rounds as we can, because we're coming to Joliet straight from a first round loss in Topeka, and we need to put that into the ancient history file."

For only the second time this season, Worsham was eliminated in the opening round of racing this past weekend. That loss, to Gary Densham, allowed Worsham to slip from third place to fourth in POWERade points, and motivated the driver and his team to see the Chicago race as a "turn-around" weekend.

"With two wins here, we absolutely do have a computer full of great data," he said. "To win at Route 66, there's just about no way to do it except to run extremely well. At some tracks, if the conditions aren't great you might get lucky or you might be just fast enough to get past all the other guys who are smoking the tires. What I'm really proud of, regarding our Chicago wins, is that conditions were stout each time, and we outran everyone.

"This time, we're thinking about qualifying first, just making good runs. Once that's over, and we're in the field, we'll do everything we can to win the first round. If we do that, we'll go on to the second. You get the drift, we're not thinking too far ahead."

Worsham will have his hands, his time, and most likely his mental capacity full to the max this weekend, as Worsham Racing will debut its new third car, with Arnie Karp driving the Artisan Home Entertainment "Terminator 2" Pontiac. With such high profile sponsors involved, the promotional aspect of the debut is apt to be a bit out of the ordinary.

"Well, I can tell you this. We're not just showing up with the new Artisan team and putting them on the track," Worsham said. "The people at Artisan Home Entertainment see a huge amount of value in NHRA POWERade Drag Racing, and they're planning to make a big bang with this first race. There's going to be a lot going on and a lot of Hollywood hoopla. Beyond all that, we'll need to stay very focused on the task at hand, but I have confidence my team and I can do that."

And with that focus, perhaps Del Worsham will join that certain Mr. Jordan in accomplishing a three-peat in Chicago