AREND MIMICS THE BOSS, GOES 1-FOR-2 AND ENDS THE DAY 10th

Del Worsham might have told Jeff Arend and his blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen teammates to "Do as I say, not as I do" but it apparently didn't sink in on Friday in Memphis. Just like Worsham, Arend made a stellar run on his first Friday pass, a 4.915 that landed him 3rd after Q1, but then smoked the tires in the night session, though slightly further down track than his CSK teammate. When the dust had settled in sultry Memphis, he was sitting 10th heading into Saturday.

"We weren't quite as hopped up as Del was, but we obviously had a bit too much in it," Arend said. "The conditions were coming around, and I think just about everyone was thinking there would be some 4.78s or 4.79s out there, especially from the Force camp, but apparently it was a 4.81 race track, at the best, and we overpowered it a little. It got out there a ways, maybe 200 feet, and I was just having the flash of thought that 'It's going to make it, and it's going to be huge' when it went 'zing' and smoked the tires. We've been running well lately, so this is a bit of a disappointment, but we'll come out here on Saturday and make two good laps. If we have to race from the bottom half, so be it. That sort of thing hasn't bothered too many people all year, to be honest."