Championship Drag Racing

NHRA Route 66 Nationals
Chicago, Ill.
(May 20-23)

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King Demon Crown

Del Worsham Checker Schuck's Kragen Funny Car

Reports: Sunday Saturday Friday Pre-race

If it wasn't "bound to happen," it was surely "likely" at some point. For the first time in eight races, both Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Chevy Monte Carlo Funny Cars saw their day come to an end in the first round. Of course, the manner in which both Del Worsham and Phil Burkart were eliminated still contributed to the oddity factor but the outcome was firm and real, and after round one there was nothing that could be done to change it.

Perhaps a strange outcome could have been foreseen earlier in the weekend, when nasty weather again plagued the Route 66 area while both CSK cars ran very well, but saw enormously great runs get away. It was all just a bit strange.

After a "get acquainted" run on Friday afternoon, the first "home run" session was held Friday night. Only, in this case, that second session ended up actually being two separate halves, as many of the Funny Cars ran in the early evening heat and humidity before the standard Joliet storm sent teams scurrying for car covers, if not cover for themselves. When action resumed, completely different conditions greeted the remaining cars and offered a chance at history. It was made.

Worsham was feeling confident he could be part of the history making, but a torched head gasket ended his second run early and he went into Saturday in the number 11 spot. Burkart, who ran in the first half of the split-personality session, posted a strong run for the conditions when he put a 4.805 on the board but it is noteworthy that he was on his way to a much quicker run before he lifted early, sensing potential engine problems that may, or may not, have ever materialized. Burkart made the call to play this one safe, but the run was still good enough to temporarily grab the top spot. After the rains departed, however, and the conditions improved, the runs that followed left him in the number six slot. One of those big runs belonged to Gary Scelzi, who took advantage of the prime conditions and became the first Funny Car driver in the sport's history to run 330 miles per hour. Seconds later, before Scelzi could even celebrate, Tony Pedregon became both the quickest and the fastest Funny Car driver in history, as he charged down the Route 66 strip in at a record clip of 4.716-seconds while also besting Scelzi's speed by running 331.28 miles per hour.

On Saturday, the scheduled running of a late morning session followed by a mid-afternoon lap ended up being a single afternoon dash through the raindrops, as the storms took leave for a few hours and the Funny Cars hit the track.

This time, Worsham was on his way to a career best, but here came those oddities again. He did post a big 4.771, but did so while coasting across the stripe. A broken blower belt at 1,000-feet turned an enormous run into a great one.

"We definitely jumped on it, and we were going for career marks," Worsham said. "But it got down there and broke the belt. Put it this way, we were nine miles per hour ahead of our 315 mph run at half track, and at the same point we were exactly even with Whit Bazemore's 4.75 run. We were on a great one."

Burkart followed with a solid 4.825, showing the consistency the blue car has been known for all year. His earlier run left him in the 9th spot, and Worsham's final effort leapfrogged him up to the No. 6 position. Time for another oddity. For the second race in a row, Burkart's mid-pack position earned him a first round race with John Force. Worsham drew Bob Gilbertson. Route 66 Raceway drew more rain, and qualifying was called off after the third session.

Sunday morning dawned with more low clouds, more storms, more wind and more tension, as Worsham and his team prepared to take on Gilbertson while the blue CSK crew aimed to knock out Force for the fourth time this year, and second straight week.

As quickly as the storm rolled in, it blew itself out of Joliet and the teams hustled through their warm-ups to get into the staging lanes while Mother Nature deemed it allowable.

Running as part of the sixth pair, Worsham hit the oddity button next. Many fans and racers would be hard pressed to remember the last time Del Worsham hit a timing block, but a dropped cylinder and a dancing front end conspired to cause his car to drift right, toward the center line. Worsham had the wheel turned as far as it would go, but the red Monte Carlo would not come back. Knowing if he lifted he'd be giving the race away, Worsham valiantly fought the car as it neared the center line, but it finally collected the mid-track blocks and Gilbertson earned the free pass.

Burkart and Force went last, as the final pair, and this was another terrific drag race in what has become one of the most competitve rivalries in the sport. They left dead even and they paced each other for 1,329 feet. Both cars made clean and fast runs. Force's got there first, this time, and won by mere inches.

"It's very frustrating, but it is what it is," Worsham said. "I'm not going to cry about it, and I can't do anything about it, so we move on and we go for it all next weekend. At least when we run three races in a row we don't have time to stew on it. We just load up and go. We'll be okay."

If it wasn't "bound to happen" it certainly was likely that Team CSK would not run the whole season without an "oh-for-two" first round. It happened here, and at the end of an odd weekend both CSK cars were done after one. Bring on Topeka.

Chicago, Saturday: Del Worsham streaked to a 4.771, even though he suffered a broken blower belt at 1,000-feet:

"I'm not a guy who goes with the 'coulda-been's' or 'woulda-been's' but it's important to us to know what the car was trying to do so we know where we stand with the tune-up. It was about 15 miles per hour ahead of our last 315 mph run, so I'm thinking it was trying to run about 328, which puts us where we want to be. We actually ran a belt that had a run on it, and did it on purpose. We've never gone up there trying to run a 4.75 before, so if anything were to go wrong I wanted the belt to give. Nothing went wrong, it just broke, so if the rain holds off now and we can run again, we'll put a new one on and take a shot at something better."

The final session was cancelled due to rain. Worsham ends up qualified No. 6. He will face Bob Gilbertson in round one. He has not faced Gilbertson this season.

Chicago, Friday: Del Worsham made a clean pass at 4.906, ending the first session in the No. 7 spot:

"We were soft, there's no getting around that. When I saw the first couple of cars make full passes, I knew there was a lot of track out there and that we hadn't really stepped on it hard enough. It should be even better tonight, and I'd imagine some 4.7's will be popping up on the board. If that is the case, we plan to be one of the teams running those numbers.'

Worsham then ran after a lengthy weather delay split the session in half, but pushed out a head gasket and shut off, landing in the No. 11 spot after two runs:

"We had it loaded up pretty big, but it flashed up on me down there around 1,000-feet and all I could was lift. It's way too bad, because this was one of those special sessions where you could make history, and some guys did. We just have to get into race mode tomorrow, and make sure we're competitive against the class in each session tomorrow."

Chicago, pre-race: If life was actually a card game, Del Worsham would have a pretty good hand. The popular driver of the red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Chevy Monte Carlo Funny Car heads to this weekend's NHRA Route 66 Nationals near Chicago with two pairs of accomplishments filling his hand. Worsham is the only two-time winner in the Funny Car class so far in 2004, and this weekend he'll be racing on a track where he has won twice before. If deuces are wild, Worsham has a hand that will be tough to beat.

In an ultra-competitive Funny Car landscape, Worsham's back-to-back victories in Phoenix and Gainesville put him out in front of the class early in the season, and his steady performance since then has kept him there. While the rest of the class takes turns beating on each other each week, the red CSK car has managed to hold on to the points lead by simply getting past the first round at the last three races.

"We knew, coming into this year, that the class would be tougher than ever, but more importantly I really believed that it would be more balanced than ever," Worsham said. "That balance is the key. If there were just three or four great cars and 12 or 13 good ones, you'd see a big gap open up in the points. What we have is more great teams than can even fit in the top ten. It's hard for anyone to get on a roll, because every round you're facing a great car.

"Winning in Phoenix and Gainesville got us out there, and now it looks like every week it's another team's turn to make a run at us but no one has been able to put two of those weeks back-to-back. That's not because they're not capable, there are a dozen teams that could win two or three races in a row with the talent they have, it's because all these other teams step up and knock them out early the next week. It's amazing, how tight this class is. I've never seen anything like it. We're seeing teams win races, then go out in the first round the next week. We actually started that trend ourselves, winning Gainesville then making a quick exit in Las Vegas."

On top of his two trophies in 2004, Worsham's other winning pair is represented by his outstanding record at Route 66 Raceway. It started with his runner-up status at the first race ever run at this super-stadium made for drag racing, back in 1998 when Team CSK was still searching for consistency and building the team it has become today. Worsham then won the spring Chicago race in 2001, the year of the now-famous Mountain Dew car, and took the win again a year later in 2002.

Last season, Worsham didn't manage to win in Chicago but he did flex his performance muscles with a pair of new career bests in the E.T. department. In the spring he posted a 4.776 to reset his all-time best mark, then he returned to Route 66 in the fall and put a 4.764 on the board. That mark still stands as his best ever, and Worsham is justly excited about taking a shot at it.

"We've had a lot of success over the past three years or so, including some very quick runs," he said. "But, in all honesty, the one thing we've been a little short on is the huge E.T.'s on the super fast tracks. One thing we've been concentrating on, now that we have the Monte Carlo body to work with, is running better with the big boys on the big tracks.

"As always, it's all going to be about the weather. If the conditions are like they usually are, the E.T.'s will be low and the speeds will be high, and I think the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlos will be right in the mix. I know people think we're a hot weather type team, and we really have done a very good job of winning on marginal tracks, but we've won in Chicago twice, in killer conditions, so we're not exactly slouches when the track is fast. We've won some thrillers here, running very fast. I'm sure that's what it will take this weekend."

As the season hits the one-third mark, with Chicago being the eighth race in the 23-race schedule, Worsham admits to watching the points, and the first round in Atlanta this past weekend was one a lot of people were watching. John Force entered the Atlanta race coming off his first win of the season, and he had closed to within 42 points of Worsham, in second place. Force, however, had to race Worsham's teammate, Phil Burkart, in round one in Atlanta and Burkart ended his day. It was a classic case of teamwork.

"That run, by our blue team, was one of the most impressive runs I've ever seen," Worsham said. "There was a ton of pressure on us, and the blue team guys knew how big that round was. They didn't just win, they put their best lap of the weekend on the board. It was huge."

Whit Bazemore went on to win the Atlanta race, vaulting himself into second place. Worsham's lead is now 51 points over Bazemore, and he can't help but wonder about the uncanny string of first round losses that have beset race winners on the tour. Worsham himself started it, winning Gainesville then going out in round one in Las Vegas. Burkart won that race in Vegas, then lost in the first round in Houston. It was Tim Wilkerson's turn next, as he won Houston and exited early in Bristol. Finally, Force took the Bristol crown but was eliminated by Burkart in Atlanta.

"I guess someone needs to step up and take out Bazemore in the first round in Chicago, to keep this string alive," Worsham said with a laugh. "Seriously, this is what I'm talking about when I say the class is so balanced. We all have to race each other, and we can all beat each other. When we win, it's often by inches so it's not that odd for the inches to go the other way the next time. It's tough out here, man. It's really tough."