Mac Tools U.S. Nationals
Indianapolis, Ind.
(Sept. 1-6)
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Phil Burkart Jr. Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car |
Reports: Monday Sunday Saturday Friday Pre-race |
Indianapolis, Monday: The annual running of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals is roundly considered to be the single most prestigious, and historic, race on the NHRA POWERade tour. What is less often said, but just as legitimate, is that the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals is also the most demanding event on the 23-race tour. It stands alone as the only race with five qualifying sessions. It features a double-dose of pressure for Funny Car teams with the Skoal Showdown built into a schedule which would push the teams to breaking point even without the extra "race within the race." It truly is "The Big Go" and it truly is one tough week of racing in America's racing capital.
For Del Worsham and Phil Burkart, the additional hoopla, the extra racing, and the inherent pressure, joined forces with oppressive Midwestern weather conditions to challenge their teams to the limit. In the end, the demands were faced and the challenges fought, and though neither driver would consider the long weekend much of a success, especially considering the five race victories they have combined to claim this season, both were proud of the effort and supportive of the groups who helped them.
The regular field of Funny Cars on the NHRA tour averages in the 18 or 19-car range, but there were 24 nitro Funny Cars contesting for the 16-car field here in Indy. Granted, some of those extra cars do not regularly post the sort of numbers required to earn entry into this stout eliminations field, but Worsham was quick to point out how the deep field changes everything.
"It really doesn't matter if some of these guys have 5.10 or 5.20 racecars," Worsham said. "When you have 24 cars entered, it makes it impossible for a good car to limp into the field like you might be able to when 17 or 18 cars show up. Some of these extra cars are going to run well enough to push the bump spot down, and that adds to the pressure. When you see 24 cars on the qualifying sheet, you start thinking about getting in the show."
Through three days and five sessions of qualifying, the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen teams battled the track, the weather, and the competition to earn hard fought spots in this field. With today's rules, it has been a while since 4-second racers missed the cut, but here Bob Gilbertson (4.964,) Bob Bode (4.966,) and Frank Pedregon (4.995) could not crack the top 16, further illustrating Worsham's point about the enhanced competition fostered by sheer numbers.
Burkart paced Team CSK, with multiple solid runs, landing himself in the No. 7 spot with a 4.861 posted on Friday night. Worsham smoked the tires at the 330' mark on Friday, lengthened his run to the 660' mark on Saturday afternoon, and then saw the Saturday night session as a "make or break" deal.
"Qualifying lasts through Sunday here, but we looked at it like the Saturday night run was the final shot," Worsham said. "We had the Skoal Showdown on Sunday, which means you're trying to win laps and qualify for the real event at the same time. That's not good. Plus, both Sunday runs were in the daytime, and by Saturday night the bump spot was getting down to where you could barely run those numbers with a perfect run in the daylight. We had to do it Saturday night."
A 4.900 wasn't the sort of number that would necessarily bring the crowd to its feet, but it got Worsham safely in the show and allowed the team to aim for the $100,000 Skoal pay-out on Sunday. And, as expected, under a searing Sunday sun and dense Indiana humidity, the field was barely altered in the final two sessions. Worsham's number held for the 13th spot.
During the Skoal Showdown on Sunday, Worsham experienced a frustrating loss of traction at nearly the hit of the throttle.
"We really haven't done that all year, but we've been close to doing it a few times so I guess I shouldn't be surprised, " Worsham said. "We've analyzed this thing from all angles, and the truth is we're really struggling with the new rules. I didn't think the 85% nitro rule, the new tire, and the new minimum tire pressure would have that big of an impact, but they really seem to have combined to directly effect our tune-up.
"Teams tune their cars differently, and I think the new rules didn't hurt a few groups out here as much as they got to us. They hit us pretty hard, the way we've tuned our car for four years now, and it's up to us to figure out a new way to approach this thing so that we can get back in the ballgame."
Worsham's early loss in the Showdown was disappointing, but Burkart's exit hit harder. As he raced John Force, Burkart spun the tires at half-track, then pedaled his car in an effort to chase Force down. Unfortunately, that pedal job created havoc in the car's power plant, and when Burkart's CSK Monte Carlo exploded the motor it was instantly engulfed in flames while also spewing thick acrid smoke.
Trying to control his machine at 250 miles per hour with zero visibility, Burkart got it to a stop just past the finish line and exited through the roof hatch, unhurt but frustrated. Though the damage was severe, and the body a short term casualty, the team went right to work to completely strip, clean, and rebuild the chassis. With nearly all the wires and hoses burned off, the effort mirrored the construction of a new car, but the blue squad dug in and completed the job by late Sunday evening, capping off their work by firing the car in the pits to confirm its race worthiness.
Monday brought with it more bright sun and high temperatures, as well as a pair of tough first round match-ups for Worsham and Burkart. Worsham's opponent was Cruz Pedregon, who has been running extremely well as of late. Burkart's foe would be Ron Capps, who has also recently run well and could easily have earned much better results than have come his way during the summer months.
Burkart went first, as he and Capps were the first pair in round one. With a 2002 Pontiac Firebird body on the car, the blue team fired their rebuilt machine and Burkart aimed to reward them with a win. He did just that, running a 4.927 on the hot track. If any particular round wins fall more legitimately into the category of "well earned," this one deserved the moniker and the blue crew deserved every pat on the back they received.
Worsham then faced off as part of the second pair, staging his one-race-only special edition Mac Tools/CSK Monte Carlo next to Pedregon. Having struggled in qualifying, the red team brain trust was unable to completely identify the limits for traction, and the smart approach was taken.
"We really needed a good solid run on Sunday afternoon, to see what the hot track would take and to see if our new approach in the clutch department was the right one," Worsham said. "But on that last qualifying run we dropped a cylinder and didn't get the full pass we wanted. For round one, we were basically out there running a little blind. We had to take our best guess, because we hadn't done well enough in the heat to know what we could do.
"You can make the age-old mistake of just standing all over it, like you're going to be big heroes and stun the world by jumping up a tenth, but we learned that lesson years ago. We just wanted to make sure we got down there, and if Cruz was going to beat us he'd have to outrun us. We absolutely weren't going to give him the round by doing anything stupid."
Worsham and Pedregon left nearly simultaneously, and paced each other the length of the track. On this lap, neither team did anything stupid and no one handed anything to anyone. Worsham's 4.993 was a solid lap, but Pedregon's 4.915 was simply better.
After round one, the blue team got to work in the CSK pit area, aiming to make the most of a long difficult weekend. Having been literally "on fire" Sunday, Burkart wanted nothing more than to be figuratively "on fire" on Monday.
"It sounded like a great story," Burkart said. "To burn your car to the ground on Sunday, work all night, put it back together with a back-up body on it, and win the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals on Monday. I was up for it."
Burkart's opponent, Gary Densham, was still experiencing the afterglow of his $100,000 Skoal Showdown win on Sunday. He was also confident in the knowledge he had one very consistent and very fast car.
Densham's reaction time at the lights (a terrific .040) gave him the jump. Burkart took up the chase right away, and was quicker to 60-feet. Burkart was quicker to 330-feet. Burkart and Densham were dead even at half-track. At that point, Densham took the lead and refused to give it back, taking the win in a thrilling side-by-side tussle that did, indeed, bring the gigantic Indy crowd to its feet.
"We raced him, we gave him a fight, but he got there first," Burkart said. "This was a very hard week on everyone. The weather just sapped the energy right out of you, but our guys never complained and never slowed down. We burned the car up, and everyone just got to work and put a basically brand-new car together overnight. We went out there and beat Ron Capps, and gave Gary Densham all he could handle. Gary went on to win the race, and he and his team deserved it. They won the Skoal deal, won the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, and etched their names in the history books. I salute that, because what they did was a fantastic accomplishment. We wanted to go further, but in my book we did a great job and my guys were fantastic."
Not content with their results, Team CSK plans to stay at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Monday for further testing.
"We're basically going to come at this thing from a new direction," Worsham said. "We've been behind the curve since the rules changes went into effect, but there are ways to go fast and some teams out here are doing it. We're not going to rest until we rework our tune-up and start giving people fits again.
"Our guys are gamers. They're in it with all the sweat and effort they can come up with. Our goal is to win Reading, and in two weeks we'll see if we can do that. There's no quit in this group."
Indianapolis, Sunday: Phil Burkart suffered a major engine explosion and fire in his first-round Skoal Showdown loss to John Force.
"I'm fine, no burns or any problems with me," Burkart said. "It launched pretty well, and it got out there far enough to where your brain starts getting ready for a full lap, then it smoked the tires kind of out of the blue. If it's qualifying, you lift and call it a day right there, but we were racing for a chance at $100,000 so I pedaled it and it hooked back up.
"Honestly, I have no idea if Force was out in front of me, pulling away, or behind me. I don't remember ever seeing him, so my instinct was to get back on it and get to the finish line. It hooked up and was pulling pretty hard and then, BOOM. It was instant fire everywhere, so I knew it had blown up pretty good. At that point, you just start going through your mental checklist to get the fuel levers shut off, pull the trigger on the fire bottles, and get it stopped.
"I was trying to get it stopped as fast as I could, because the bottles didn't quite get the fire out and it was starting to build again. It wasn't burning me, and the fresh air system gave me all the air I needed, but as big as the explosion was I knew it was cooking the body. Looks like the body is a write off, though Chuck Worsham has saved some pretty toasty bodies in the past. We'll see."
Burkart and his team then sat out the fifth and final qualifying session, taking the time to clean and rebuild their racecar.
Burkart enters eliminations from the No. 7 spot. He will face Ron Capps in round one. He is 1-0 against Capps this season.
Indianapolis, Saturday: Phil Burkart went "one-for-two" in the blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen / "The Punisher" Monte Carlo, posting a solid 4.961 in the afternoon heat and humidity, but then suffering tire shake late Saturday night in the thick dew-laden air. He ended the day in the No. 7 qualifying spot.
Burkart and his team will now shift focus, thinking about round one of the Skoal Showdown, set for midday Sunday, where they will face John Force.
"We did pretty well in the first run today, considering how tough the conditions were," Burkart said. "Then, as we were getting ready for the night run, an alcohol car had a big oil-down that shut everything down for about an hour. After that, Top Fuel ran ahead of us and a couple of them had problems. In the end, this whole day turned into a marathon. It felt like it lasted 26 hours. It was so hot all day, and so darn humid you could hardly move, then we ended up being out here until after 10:00 trying to get our last session done.
"We're solidly in the show, and I'd bet we're solid for the top half unless the weather does something ridiculous like dropping ten degrees and losing 50 percent of its humidity. Of course, I wouldn't lose any sleep thinking of those options. Our first run tomorrow will be round one of the Skoal Showdown, and it will also be another qualifying pass for the race on Monday. Being where we are, we'll go up there to beat John Force and we'll do whatever it takes to accomplish that. The Skoal people have a big check waiting for the guy who can win three rounds tomorrow. I'd like to see my name on it."
Indianapolis, Friday: Phil Burkart piloted the blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlo, which is carrying the colors of "The Punisher" motion picture here in Indy, celebrating the Sept. 7 release of the critically acclaimed movie on home DVD, to a stout 4.861 in this first session. The run landed him in the No.5 spot.
"That was pretty fun," Burkart said. "This is the Friday night run at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, under the lights in Indy, and believe me it feels special out there just standing in the staging lanes. Part of that is the mystique, but tonight another big part of it was the crowd. This place is absolutely wall-to-wall fans. The crowd is gigantic, and this is just the first day.
"My guys told me it should go right down there, and just to keep in between the lines. It's a little dark down there, but it ran well and it stayed straight and when I heard 4.86 I was real happy. We wanted to get a good number on the board early here, and getting off the trailer with a number like that is a big deal to us."
Indianapolis, pre-race: When Phil Burkart rolls to the line for his first qualifying pass on Friday, at the 50th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, he can expect more than a few fans and fellow racers to do a double-take when they see his Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlo. In addition to its regular colorful CSK design, Burkart's car will also prominently feature graphics advertising the upcoming home DVD release of the hit movie "The Punisher," set to go on sale September 7th.
Graphics touting the Lion's Gate release of the DVD would normally have been placed on Jerry Toliver's racecar, as his association with marketing expert Michael Karp includes a major associate sponsorship with Lion's Gate Films. When the logistics of adding these graphics to Toliver's car became prohibitive, leaving "The Punisher" program with no home for the prestigious Indianapolis race, Karp called on his friends and former teammates at Team CSK for assistance. With approval from Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Auto Parts, the CSK blue team stepped in to help out.
"Michael is a good friend, who we worked with last year when his dad, Arnie Karp, drove for us," Burkart said. "As it turned out, they couldn't put 'The Punisher' graphics on Jerry's car for Indy, so Michael asked our team if we'd be willing to help out. We went straight to CSK to see what they thought, and everyone was happy to do it, so we're thrilled to assist. It's just for this one race, but we'd like to give Michael and the people at Lion's Gate as much exposure as we can. I mean, if you're going to help out you might as well go all the way."
Burkart has gone all the way to the winner's circle twice this year, taking the trophy in Las Vegas and Denver, but the thought of winning the 50th Annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals is one he can't help but be mesmerized by.
"Everyone says that this is the big one, and I agree with them," Burkart said. "Your name is forever etched in the record books when you win any race, and I'm lucky enough to be etched in there three times. But Indy is Indy, there's no getting around how special it is, and this is the 50th Anniversary race. When you think of Indy, you think of Big Daddy, the Snake, Shirley, and all the amazing history that has taken place right here at Indianapolis Raceway Park. You're in very select company if you win it. It would be a huge deal, and the highlight of my career."
Burkart also knows that winning in Indianapolis somehow seems to be just a shade more difficult, a touch more challenging, than winning any other NHRA event.
"It starts with qualifying, because we'll have a huge field of Funny Cars to contend with," Burkart said. "When 25 cars are lined up trying to make the 16-car field, the pressure is on early. Then, when we race on Monday, it just gets ratcheted up a notch. You wouldn't think there's any room for improvement for most teams out here, because we give it 100% every week. But race day in Indy seems different, and the best teams rise to the challenge and win. I think we're one of the best teams."
Though Burkart himself has never won the "Wally" at Indy, the team for which he is driving was one "win light" away from taking the trophy last year. While Burkart was driving the Worsham's third car in 2003 (coincidentally sponsored by Artisan Home Entertainment, which is now Lion's Gate) Johnny Gray was driving the blue CSK machine. In what turned out to be Gray's last race as part of Team CSK, the blue squad advanced to the final round before losing to Tim Wilkerson.
"I remember that well, because we qualified the black car in the eighth spot, and faced Johnny Gray in round one," Burkart said. "The fact he was runner-up tells you he won that round against us, and it was a very close race. I was having a great time driving the Artisan car, but I also had an enormous amount of respect for (blue team co-crew chiefs) Marc Denner and Chris Cunningham. When Johnny resigned after the race, and the Worshams offered me the chance to take over in the blue car, I knew some trips to the Winner's Circle had to be in the cards. I was right."
It's now one year later, Artisan is now Lion's Gate, and Burkart is now the full-time driver of the blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlo, and things have serendipitously come full circle. With "The Punisher" on board for one event, and that event being "The Big Go," Burkart aims to do all he can to etch his name into the most special spot in the record book.
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