Championship Drag Racing

O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals
Dallas, Texas
(Sept. 23-26)

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Phil Burkart Jr. Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car

Reports: Sunday Friday Pre-race

Dallas, Sunday: The signs were there.

They began to become evident on the day after the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, when Del Worsham and his red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team stayed behind an extra day to test an entirely new combination. Not allowed to make an appearance in Reading, due to rain, the signs and indications became apparent again during qualifying here in Dallas.

After struggling through the "Western Swing" and beyond with a racecar that simply would not respond to tuning input as it had prior to the well publicized rule changes, Del Worsham felt he was "up against the wall" in Indy and made the decision to reverse four years of steady tune-up philosophy in mid-stream. After that successful test session in Indy, Worsham felt he was close to having a stout racecar again.

Through qualifying at the Texas Motorplex, Worsham's strong feelings turned into fact. His Friday night 4.835 was his best E.T. since the end of May in Topeka. His strong runs in the heat on Saturday didn't move him up from the No. 5 spot, also his best spot since Topeka, but they gave him the confidence to know he had a car that could win during the day on Sunday.

On the blue side of the CSK pit, Phil Burkart found himself under the most attractive racecar on the property, driving a stunning special-edition Havoline Oil Monte Carlo. He also found himself driving a better car than his 15th qualifying spot (on the strength of a 4.912) actually showed. Burkart had two much better runs going during qualifying, but clicked one early by mistake and lost another with a broken blower belt. If there was ever a "sandbag" effort, Burkart's might have been it. He clearly had a car that could win on Sunday despite its spot near the bottom of the ladder.

Under brilliant blue Texas skies, Worsham and Burkart headed to the starting line on Sunday morning with a quiet confidence not seen in quite some time around these parts. Worsham's No. 5 spot didn't earn him a "gimme" as he had to face Tim Wilkerson in round one. Burkart's challenge was even greater, as he had to face No. 2 qualifier Tony Pedregon in the first stanza. Worsham, not wanting to delay the outcome nor the drama, chose to be first pair in round one. In effect, his thoughts were "Let's get this on and get it over with."

After the burnouts, Worsham and Wilkerson backed up to the beams, staged, and waited for the flash of amber. When Wilkerson's car jumped out to an audibly clear advantage, each member of Team CSK had to hold their breath in fear their driver had been horribly left on. Instead, they saw the "win light" already on in Worsham's lane. Wilkerson, a true pro who rarely makes mistakes, had jumped the gun and red-lit. Worsham, still completely unaware of his opponent's transgression, took off after him in pursuit.

With his team's collective breath being held, Worsham then came dangerously close to the center line.

"I almost pulled a Cory," Worsham said humorously, referring to his former teammate and good friend Cory Lee who had the 2003 Auto Club Finals won when Worsham red-lit, but then crossed the center line to hand the season finale back to Worsham. "I didn't know what was going on, but I saw him having trouble and I made the mistake of looking over there. When I looked back, I was nearing the center line and yanked it back. It didn't come back, so I lifted and hit the parachutes. It was very close down there."

Close, but a key win for a team that really needed one, as Worsham managed to keep the CSK Chevy in its lane to take the win.

Burkart then followed against No. 2 qualifier Tony Pedregon, and he immediately displayed the better car he had been hiding in qualifying. Pedregon smoked the Goodyears early, but Burkart tore down the track to stout 4.948 to take the big win.

"It was just a matter of getting it down there, to me," Burkart said. "We had some bad luck in qualifying, and it cost us five or six positions on the ladder. We went up there to win, so it wasn't an upset to us. We had a good car, qualifying just didn't show it."

It was also a "two-for-two" effort by Team CSK and a hint of things to come.

In round two, the challenges only got bigger for Worsham. He had to face rival Whit Bazemore, who came into this race a bit more than one round ahead of him in the POWERade points. Burkart had to face John Force's teammate Eric Medlen. There was no doubt about it, this was going to be tough.

Worsham went first, and was part of what was certainly a great race. Bazemore got a slight jump at the lights, but Worsham made it up by the 60-foot mark. From that point on, the CSK Monte Carlo pulled away from the Dodge and maintained an important lead. Worsham's big 4.912 in the heat was clearly better than Bazemore's 4.950, and the red CSK car moved on to the semi-final.

Burkart then followed against Medlen, and although he left first, and led at nearly every increment down the track, his Havoline car nosed over near the top end and Medlen sneaked by for the win. Though Team CSK hadn't quite made it a "four-for-four" deal, every crew member walked back to the pit with heads held high. And Del Worsham was on his way to his ninth semi-final of the year.

If Wilkerson and Bazemore had been a challenge, the semi-final would be yet another huge step up. Worsham was lined up against John Force, who hasn't won the POWERade championship yet but certainly has his name being added to the trophy design.

Both cars did their burnouts and backed up. Both lit the pre-stage bulbs. Worsham then waited. He waited until Force rolled in to the stage beams, then immediately rolled in after him. At that point, this race was over. John Force jumped the lights and fouled out while Del Worsham screamed to yet another big lap, putting a 4.911 on the board while Force shut off and coasted.

"I have more respect for John than just about anyone," Worsham said. "But you have to race the guy, and you have to make him beat you. I tried to mess with his routine a little, and I know our consistency was in his head. Maybe he felt he really needed to weld me at the line to win, or maybe he just blinked, but we got him. What was the best, though, was running that well after he fouled. If he could have put a 4.911 on the board in the middle of the afternoon, he could have had the semi. I felt pretty good about that lap, and I know for a fact that we earned that break. We earned our way to the final."

In that final, Cruz Pedregon would be waiting in an "Auto Parts Retailer Extravaganza." The Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Auto Parts car would be racing against the Advance Auto Parts car, at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Nationals. It was on.

After waiting through a slew of sportsman finals, both teams were so itchy to run they could barely breath.

Worsham and Pedregon did their burnouts and backed up, while the two crews made their best effort to look calm, but failed.

At the flash of amber, Worsham jumped out to an incredibly focused advantage, grabbing a key 2-hundredths edge at the line. That advantage was key, because this race was one for the ages and dead-even close. Both cars tore down the track. Both stayed stuck to the surface. Both were streaking for the win.

At 1,000-feet, just 320-feet from the finish line, both cars recorded the exact same elapsed time of 4.222. Worsham's starting line advantage was all that was keeping him ahead at that point, but in the final 300-feet he pulled further away and sent his huge CSK-clad entourage into delirium at the starting line. Without a win since Columbus in June, the CSK squad went, basically, berserk.

"We took a huge step by reworking a tune-up that had worked for us since 2000," Worsham said to the media after the race. "We got hit hard by the rules changes, and it took us a few races to figure that out, but we had the guts to make the changes and I knew in Indy that we were going to be okay. I'd say today, we were okay.

"I also want to say something about the Goodyear tires," he continued. "There's been a lot of comment lately about the tires, but today they were flawless. We put a lot of stress on them, and they carried us through the whole race. The tires were perfect. We also worked very hard on our Chevy Monte Carlo since Indy, tweaking our aerodynamics. The Monte Carlo was perfect and today it beat a Dodge, a Ford, and two other Monte Carlos. My crew was also perfect, because the car never missed a beat and we were the first ones ready after each round. Basically, I guess, it was a perfect day."

It was, absolutely, a perfect day and Worsham earned every bit of it.

Dallas, Friday: Phil Burkart had assumed that his two-race 100th Anniversary Havoline special edition car, making its debut here in Dallas, would turn some heads but even he was surprised by the overwhelming positive reaction to the attractive new Monte Carlo. The car features a complete vinyl wrap which stylishly illustrates the 100 years of Havoline Oil.

Burkart broke a blower belt on his first run, then posted a solid 4.912 on his evening pass, though that run was slowed by an early shut-off.

"I'm always willing to point the finger at the guy in the car when I goof up, and I did a little on that run," Burkart said. "That was my first full pass in this Havoline car, which is a new Monte Carlo body for us. I got down there around 1,000-feet and it was running great, so my brain started thinking about making sure I got my right hand to the parachute lever okay, and for no reason whatsoever I lifted my foot when I reached for the lever. I couldn't believe it myself, actually. Just one of those deals where you're thinking at hyper-speed and you do something before it even registers that you've done it.

"My guys, Marc Denner, Chris Cunningham, and the whole team gave me a great car. We had two great running cars tonight, and the 4.91 is solidly in, but tomorrow in the heat I don't see a lot of shuffling going on. We'll just have to look at the bright side and know that we have a fast car. We'll measure ourselves versus the rest of the class in the heat tomorrow, because I think we can run with anybody."

Dallas, pre-race: Continuing a long-standing tradition for Team Checker, Schuck's, Kragen, Phil Burkart will hit the track this weekend in a Monte Carlo Funny Car that is sure to turn heads and elicit comments along the lines of "I've never seen that car before" from even the most avid NHRA fans. Beginning this week in Dallas, Burkart will spend two consecutive events piloting a special-edition car celebrating 100 years of excellence from Havoline Oil.

Featuring creative graphics designed to represent a century of speed enhancing products, the Havoline car includes the graphic image of an early 20th century racecar on both sides and the hood, juxtaposing those images with the space age 6,000-horsepower Monte Carlo upon which they rest. It's "1904 meets 2004" and Burkart aims to give the old roadster a trip into the 21st century.

"First of all, I'm honored to drive this car for two races," Burkart said. "The people at Havoline have been a major part of the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen program for many years. They were the people who stepped up and got involved with this program to develop a custom blend of oil for us, and the team saw the benefits right away.

"The car itself is awesome looking, with that old race car and the nostalgic Havoline logo on it. It's neat to put that image of the old open-cockpit roadster on something like our 2004 Monte Carlo. Talk about the old meeting the new. If we run 315 miles per hour this weekend, I guess the old racecar will be along on a wild ride."

The debut of the Havoline Funny Car is one of the few aspects of life on the NHRA tour not affected by last week's rain-out in Reading. Burkart was slated to compete with a CSK Firebird body atop his car (his CSK Monte Carlo is still being repaired after a nasty fire in Indianapolis) while the Havoline body was always due to hit the track in Dallas and Chicago. After the rain in Reading, Burkart simply moves forward with his original plan to make a Havoline splash at the Texas Motorplex.

"It worked out okay for this deal, though the rain in Reading messed up plans for a lot of other people," Burkart said. "Now, we just put this new Monte Carlo on and go fast in Dallas. After that, we bust it straight up north to Chicago for the next weekend. The big challenge there is going to be the weather contrast. It will be hot this weekend in Dallas. I don't expect it to be hot next weekend in Chicago. You'll need to be creative as to how you pack for this trip."

Burkart is also excited to have a Monte Carlo body back on his car, after cooking his old reliable Monte in Indy.

"We burned her up pretty good, which is really too bad," he said. "That car won its first race, in Las Vegas, and won again on the mountain in Denver. It's a big project to get that car back on the track, so I'm glad to have a new Monte Carlo to race with. There's nothing wrong with the old Firebird, other than our Firebirds are getting a little aged and with age comes weight. To put this sleek new Monte Carlo on in Dallas, on the fast Motorplex track, will be a treat."

What will also be a treat is the simple chance to get back to racing. After a week off, followed by the rain in Reading, it's been a long half-month since Burkart has stomped on the throttle.

"You get itchy waiting to race," he said. "We needed the weekend off after Indy, but we didn't need the rain in Reading. Now, after being tired a couple of weeks ago, our guys are getting stir crazy. They want to make some noise. The driver feels the same way, and we want to take this car to the Winner's Circle. What a thrill that would be."

One hundred years of Havoline excellence. One weekend of speed. It's a formula that adds up to fun for Phil Burkart and his Checker, Schuck's, Kragen teammates.