Championship Drag Racing

Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals
Reading, Pa.
(Oct. 8-10)

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Del Worsham Checker Schuck's Kragen Funny Car

Reports: Sunday Saturday Friday Pre-race 2 Pre-race

Reading, Sunday: Streaks, like all good things, eventually must come to an end. For both Del Worsham and Phil Burkart, drivers of the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlo Funny Cars, Sunday's racing in Reading provided the backdrop for a pair of streaks to be broken. Worsham's was the more impressive and high profile, as he came in here with two consecutive race wins, but Burkart's was notable as well, as his team entered Reading with four consecutive second-round finishes.

When Team CSK's day came to an end, Worsham had advanced to the semi-final before running into the John Force juggernaut. Burkart saw his day conclude in the first round, as Gary Densham sent him home. For Worsham, ten rounds in a row were won before Force got the better of the semi-final race. As streaks go, it was a sweet one.

"It was great, and we felt we had a chance to keep it going," Worsham said. "He ran great, but we were thinking we could battle what he put up there. Unfortunately, we got bit by the tire smoke bug there, and it was over just after the hit of the throttle. I'm proud of what we did the last three weeks, and proud of our guys. Heck, I'm proud to have made the semi-final here.

"We weren't spoiled by winning two in a row, but we sure developed a taste for going rounds. You get into a groove, and you get to really enjoy the feeling of winning round after round. We won ten in a row, and we've never done that before. Still, when you lose, it doesn't feel very good."

Worsham's recent success was clearly spelled out in qualifying, as he led the field after one session with a 4.853. He then stepped up to a 4.800 on his second run, though he slipped to the No. 3 spot when Ron Capps dipped a toe in the 4.79 waters and Gary Densham exactly matched Worsham's 4.800 but got the nod by outrunning him by 8-hundredths of one mph (319.07 to 318.99.)

While in the mood to exactly match an E.T., Worsham uncannily posted another precise 4.800 during Saturday's first run, but this time he jumped up his speed enough (319.29 mph) to move around a non-improving Densham. On his final run, Worsham's 4.815 gave him a perfect total of four stout laps, and his car was obviously still one to be reckoned with. For the effort, Worsham earned the No. 6 spot and a first round match with former teammate Johnny Gray.

For Burkart and his blue team, "almost" was more the theme than Worsham's ultra-consistency. Tire spin at the top end slowed Burkart on his first pass, before he posted a 4.920 during the late session to solidify a spot in the field. On Saturday, Burkart continued his improvement, though he was unable to completely erase the tire spin plague at the top end. Running very quick incremental numbers, the blue CSK machine couldn't seem to stay glued to the track for the full 1,320. A 4.903 came first, before Burkart posted a 4.877 on his final lap, landing him in the No. 13 position for race day. His first round opponent would be Gary Densham.

Sunday dawned cool and clear, and conditions kept improving as the day wore on. Worsham selected first pair, as has been a habit lately, and he was ready for his former teammate. Gray has a track record of leaving first, but here Worsham got the jump at the lights and tore away for a solid 4.841 to take out Gray's 4.943. That made it nine round wins in a row, and the streak was still alive.

Burkart then lined up next to Densham, hoping to step up from his qualifying effort while also dealing with an upset stomach that afflicted him most of the morning. Putting the discomfort aside, Burkart left nearly dead-even with Densham, grabbing an imperceptible one-thousandth of a second edge. In almost the same amount of time as that edge, Burkart's car began to spin the tires and Densham streaked away for the win. After four straight races featuring first round wins, Burkart's day was over after round one.

Worsham then moved on to round two where longtime nemesis Ron Capps awaited. Capps' Monte Carlo ran well all weekend here, putting a string of very impressive laps on the board, including qualifying runs of 4.957, 4.796, 4.777, and 4.808 before he ran 4.836 to oust Jeff Arend in round one. Worsham knew he'd have his hands full trying to stretch his streak to ten straight rounds.

When the lights went green, Worsham and Capps hit the throttle and within a few short feet of the starting line Worsham experienced something he hasn't felt in many weeks, tire spin. His CSK Monte Carlo went into heavy smoke, and Capps began to pull away. Before the disappointment of Worsham's smoke could sink in, though, Capps suffered tire spin of his own in the other lane. A driver's pedaling duel was on.

Worsham was on and off the throttle. Capps was on and off the throttle. With Capps well ahead, Worsham began to make up ground, and when he coaxed his bucking car into gradually hooking up, while Capps' machine continued to generate billowing white smoke, the CSK car caught up and sped away. In terms of performance it wasn't pretty, but in terms of keeping the streak alive through terrific driving ability, it was gorgeous.

The win meant more than just one more "W" in the column for Worsham. It was his 36th round victory on the year, setting a new personal record. Worsham won 35 rounds in both 2001 and 2002. The 36th round added the second "career best" bookend for the popular driver, joining his other new personal best of five race wins in one year, which was earned last week in Chicago.

All of that good news provided Worsham with the next great challenge. John Force would be his foe in the semi-final. Force, who has been putting on a show of unparalleled performance recently, kept the spotlight on himself this weekend as well, qualifying No. 2 with a 4.754, before ripping off a breathtaking 4.728 in round one while nearly everyone else was generating win lights with 4.83's and 4.84's. Force's 4.762 in round two gave him the chance to strut his stuff against Worsham in the semi.

Though firmly convinced the only way to beat Force for the third straight week would be to race the track and stay within themselves, Team CSK saw the streak come to an end quickly as Worsham spun the hoops almost at the step of the throttle and Force tore away. It was over.

"I was a little down when we lost, but the guy isn't going to lose to me every time we race," Worsham said. "We're learning a lot these days. We're learning how to play at a new level, and we're learning how to accept the consequences when things don't go as planned. We've been smiling a lot around here lately, and getting to the semi-final is something to smile about. We have two races left, and we want to smile some more."

The POWERade tour now takes two weekends off, before Team CSK and the rest of the touring pros head to Las Vegas on October 28-31. For Worsham and Burkart, the time off will be well utilized before they arrive in Vegas hoping to start new streaks and generate more smiles. It's been a heck of a ride, and it's not over yet.

Reading, Saturday: Del Worsham drove the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlo to two more fine runs, starting with improbably coincidental 4.800, exactly the time he ran Friday evening. This time, the 4.800 came with a slightly faster speed of 319.29. Worsham was holding the No. 3 spot until the final session here, where he ran a very similar but slightly slower 4.815 and slipped to the No. 6 spot when Gary Densham, John Force, and Gary Scelzi sneaked around with quicker final passes.

"Why we slowed down just a little on that last run, I don't know yet," Worsham said immediately after the lap. "To put those two 4.800's back-to-back was about bizarre. We still have a car that wants to do nothing but go down the track, which is very nice, and it's not edgy so I feel pretty confident when we want to lean on it a little. We'll just be smart tomorrow, and try to take everything the track will give us. We'll race the track tomorrow, and whoever is in the other lane will just have to beat what we put up there if they want to advance."

Worsham will face former teammate Johnny Gray in round one. He has not faced Gray this season.

Reading, Friday: Del Worsham, driver of the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlo, maintained his recent blistering pace, leading the pack after the first session with a 4.853, then stepping up to a 4.800 during the second lap. On both occasions, Worsham was paired with John Force, and on both laps he out-ran him.

In the end, Worsham ended the day in the No. 3 position by the narrowest of margins. Ron Capps put a stout 4.796 on the board, just four-thousandths quicker than Worsham, and Gary Densham exactly matched Worsham's quick time with another 4.800. That tie was settled via speed, which was nearly a deadlock in itself, as Densham got the edge by only 8-hundredths of a mile per hour (319.07 to Worsham's 318.99 mph). Worsham, therefore, ends the first day in the No. 3 spot.

"We got to run John Force twice, and we ran quicker than he did twice," Worsham said. "My first instinct is to say that doesn't mean anything, but I guess it does. It does help to run well because it keeps us up in the top half of the field, and it always feels good to run quicker than Force, but the outrunning him part is a little bit deceiving or irrelevant. Race day is different, and you never anticipate outrunning them on Sunday.

"All we're concentrating on is making good runs in our lane, and we've been on a bit of a hot streak lately. We're just trying to maintain, and right now it's going well for us. You work awfully hard to find a groove like this, and you work even harder to stay in it. And, it feels good to run right with the very best."

Reading, pre-race 2: Del Worsham is hot; certifiably red-hot. Hotter than a $2 pistol, hotter than July, hotter than the frying pan as well as the fire, and just plain scalding hot. The driver of the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlo Funny Car returns to Maple Grove Raceway this weekend, to complete the rain-delayed Lucas Oil Nationals, absolutely the same guy he was three weeks ago, though he also returns to Pennsylvania from an entirely different perspective and at a much higher "temperature."

After rain washed out this event in mid-September, the tour took off for Dallas and Chicago on back-to-back weekends. Worsham was sorely disappointed to leave Reading without racing, both because of the added travel headache involved in returning to Maple Grove in October as well as the frustration associated with not getting to race with what he firmly believed was a much better tune-up. He was right. It was, indeed, a much better tune-up.

Worsham simply headed to Dallas and ran the table. He qualified well (No. 5) and raced even better. On Sunday he took out big hitters Tim Wilkerson, Whit Bazemore, John Force, and Cruz Pedregon to pick up his fourth victory on the season, matching the career best he established in 2001 and 2002. Just days later he ran the table again, this time in Chicago. His No. 2 qualifying position was earned when he absolutely demolished his previous bests for both elapsed time and speed, posting a 4.730 at 328.54 mph. On Sunday, he streaked past Tommy Johnson, Jerry Toliver, Eric Medlen, and then John Force in the final, where he not only grabbed his fifth win on the year, but also reset his speed mark again with a 329.75 mph clocking.

"We're certainly heading back to Reading with a different mindset," Worsham said. "When we were here last month, I was confident we had turned the corner but I needed to get on the track to prove it, to myself and everyone else. We were so disappointed to have to pack up and leave without even making one lap. Well, after Dallas and Chicago I think we know for a fact that we've turned the corner.

"Earlier this year we won two races in a row, at Phoenix and Gainesville, and that was a first for us. Honestly, to do it again, at two super-fast races like Dallas and Chicago, after we struggled so much in late summer, is one of the most gratifying turn-arounds I've ever been a part of. This team never quit, and they deserved every bit of the celebrating they did after these last two races."

Worsham is in his 14th season driving a Funny Car, so no one has to tell him about the cruel realities of professional drag racing. Just like a coin that has come up heads twice in a row, the next flip is just as random as the previous two. Worsham's trip back to Reading is no more guaranteed to be successful than any other driver's return, though momentum does help.

"When we get there, we'll be trying to qualify like everyone else," he said. "We'll try to keep the mistakes to a minimum, try to get the car from line to line, and hopefully we'll be well up the ladder when Saturday night rolls around. But, just because we've won these last two races doesn't mean we have any shortcuts. There aren't any shortcuts in this sport, and there aren't any freebies. We still have our work cut out for us."

The two race streak has done one major thing for Worsham and his CSK teammates, in addition to the obvious emotional lift they've experienced. It has moved Worsham back into second place in the POWERade standings, only a couple of weeks after he'd slipped to fourth and seemed to be fading. He now enters Reading with a 76 point lead over Gary Scelzi, who is third. His advantage over Whit Bazemore, who has been fighting Worsham near the top of the pack all year, has grown to 99 points. With three races left on the docket, Worsham has yet to sew up the No. 2 spot, but he certainly sits in the most advantageous position.

"Three races left, and we're a little more than three rounds ahead of Gary, and almost five rounds up on Whit," Worsham said. "I'm sure Gary sees it as a simple deal of picking up a round per race. I know that's how I'd see it. A round a race is easy if we go out early, so we absolutely must win some rounds in Reading, and hopefully a few more in Las Vegas and Pomona. I really want to finish second. Our whole team does. We've never finished higher than third, so it's a big goal for all of us. We've also never won more than 35 rounds in a year, and right now we have 34. Of course, we'd never won more than four races in a year before, either, so maybe we can do this."

While leading the battle for second place, Worsham was quick to comment on John Force's domination of the class, as well as the champ's incredible performance in Chicago.

"Let me tell you, when we ran 4.730 on Saturday morning, just about everyone thought we'd done something special," Worsham said. "Before that lap, my all-time best was 4.764, so that was a big jump for us. We all said afterward that the only bad thing about it was we might have made Force mad. All he did was come out and become the first Funny Car driver to ever run in the 4.60's, with a 4.697 on his last qualifying pass. I didn't know whether to cheer for him or shake my head. I could hardly believe my eyes.

"On race day, he upped the ante even further. That 4.665 in round one was ludicrous. There were guys out there running absolutely great, setting new career marks, and Force had a tenth on them. It was nuts. But that's how good they are. Right now, we're running very well. Earlier in the season, we were running very well. But over ten months, Force and his guys never seem to have a slump. They're always there. We have one more win than they do, but they're 237 points ahead of us. Right now, we're learning what it takes to really contend for this deal. What we're learning here should help us next year."

Consistency is good. Being red hot is good. Being both consistent and hot, over a 23-race season, might just win you a championship.

Reading, pre-race: Throughout its 10-month racing season, the NHRA POWERade tour hits three stops in consecutive weeks on four different occasions. Only one of those three-race series has earned a recognizable name (the mid-summer "Western Swing") but all offer condensed results in short order while they challenge the teams with varied conditions, grueling travel, and tough competition.

Starting this weekend, Del Worsham and his red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlo Funny Car team will head out on the final three-race grouping of the year, kicking off what could be called the "Fall Swing" in picturesque Reading, Pa., before heading directly to Dallas and Chicago on the following two weekends.

As the first hints of autumn are infiltrating the northern states, and football teams are ushering in the "back to school" season, Worsham and his team are aiming to revive what began as a stellar campaign. At mid-season, after picking up three race victories while leading the points standings for seven races, Worsham and team hit a dry spell of frustrating proportions, picking up only three round wins in July and August. It was not a kind summer for Team CSK, but Worsham feels he has a handle on what went wrong, and a plan for how to fix it.

"Heading to Denver, we learned about the new rules for fuel mixture and tire pressure," Worsham said. "At the time, I really didn't think it would be that big of a deal, though I did think it would probably add even more parity to the class, at least for a while as we all sorted it out.

"Looking back now, we learned that it did make a big difference, especially for us. There are various ways to tune these cars, different directions you can come from to adjust the performance from run to run, or race to race. Since 2001 we've been tuning our car a certain way. It's worked for us, obviously, but other teams do it other ways and that works for them. When we changed to the new rules, for some reason our clutch program really took a hit. The way we tune the car was directly affected by the new rules and, all of a sudden, we couldn't breathe on the clutch without smoking the tires. The next thing we knew, we weren't able to go as fast as some other teams and first place disappeared over the horizon."

At the most recent race, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, Worsham finally reached the conclusion that his faithful tune-up was no longer viable, and at mid-race he announced a major change to the team's tuning approach.

"We didn't have a choice," he said. "Our old system worked great for four years, but with these tires and the new fuel rule, we were getting left behind. On the last day at Indy, we made a wholesale change to our clutch and motor program. It was the sort of thing you might consider doing over the off-season, but we had to do it right in the middle of the race. We ran first round with it, but we were kind of taking a stab in the dark. I just wanted to get the car to the other end without smoking the tires, and I wanted to see that it had room left in the tune-up. We lost the round, but we accomplished what we were after.

"We stayed over a day, and made some great test laps. For the first time since Denver, I'm actually heading to a race thinking we're moving in the right direction. Now, we've got some flexibility to hop the car up without knowing it's just going to spin. The rest of the season will give us a chance to learn some new limits and push our performance again. We haven't been able to push the car at all lately."

Currently residing in fourth place, Worsham has seen the POWERade Top 10 condense into a very tight race for second place. With John Force pulling away to more than a 200 point lead with five races to go, the gap from Gary Scelzi in second place down to Tim Wilkerson in seventh, is only 134 points. With so many top teams squeezed together in such a tight bunch, the finishing order for 2004's Funny Car class is completely up in the air.

"I know some guys say they don't care where they end up if they're not in first place," Worsham said. "Everybody feels differently about it, and if that's how they feel that's fine. I just know that we do care. Our guys want to finish as high as we can, especially considering the first half we had. We have five races left, and we're only 66 points out of second place. That's the good news. On the flip side, Wilkerson is in seventh place and he's only 68 points behind us. It's going to be a wild finish to this thing."

That wild finish begins this weekend at Maple Grove Raceway, where Worsham has seen his share of excitement over the years. Running extremely well on occasion, Worsham has streaked to personal bests at Maple Grove. He has also found his way onto the highlight reels with spectacular explosions one year ago and in 2001. During the 2003 explosion, where he detonated a motor at the finish line during round one, Worsham took the win light but lost the body off his car, then careened down the track, bouncing off the guard wall before ending up in the sand. Though his team gallantly got him back to the line for round two, his steering was tweaked enough to prevent a storybook finish.

"The whole thing last year was just unbelievable," Worsham said. "We were cruising down there, got the win light, and then all I saw was orange fire followed by daylight. The body just disintegrated and as it flew off all four wheels were off the ground. There was a great picture on the internet, showing the car right as it blew up. The only thing making contact with the track is the weight bar on the front. If we're going to be all over the internet again this year, I'd rather it be for winning the race."

Continuing to rework their tuning approach, Team CSK arrives in Reading determined to maximize their results. Translating that determination into round wins would be a fine way to kick off the "Fall Swing."