CLUTCH FAILURE KEEPS WORSHAM OUT OF TOP 12

Del Worsham smoked the tires on his first Friday pass, as did most of the drivers in the Funny Car class, but he came back for the nightcap intent upon hitting a "home run" with a big lap. Instead, a fluke clutch malfunction caused the car to slow just past half-track, and Worsham was forced to lift off the throttle. His 5.231 was not good enough to land in the top 12 spots (where the final position was anchored by Tim Wilkerson's 4.979) so Worsham will enter Saturday with no official time on the books, looking to crack his way into the top 16 for race day.

"The car left great, and it was really not even edgy at the hit," Worsham said. "It just pulled hard off the starting line was ripping. But, it got out there around half-track and the rpm's didn't pull down like normal, and the motor just stayed up and the car wasn't pulling. For a fraction of a second, I let it go thinking it might just be me or maybe it would sort itself out, but then it was obvious it just wasn't right. I think if I'd have left my foot down any longer it would've done something really ugly, so I'm glad we didn't have a lot of broken stuff to deal with.

"We just changed some things on the clutch system recently, and I take the blame for this. I should have checked it, but I didn't, and basically the bearing just stopped moving. The clutch just quit, so the motor was starting to go a little crazy without the clutch pulling it down. The worst part is that it was on a great lap. I don't know if it would've been low for the day, but it would've been close. As it was, it was nothing. At least, though, we got a really good handle on the track and I'm sure we can be one of the quicker cars tomorrow."