THROUGH SUNSHINE AND SMOKE, WORSHAM STAYS 4th

Del Worsham, like many of the drivers on this hot and sunny Saturday, was unable to negotiate a full pass on the Brainerd drag strip in either of today's sessions, but since all the line-up shuffling happened in the lower reaches of the ladder, his position in the No. 4 spot was never threatened. And, despite the tire smoke, Worsham was upbeat about his race car.

"I'm not down at all about this," Worsham said. "It was hot and tricky out there today, and we found the edge a couple of times, but on that last run we had it just about perfect until it drove into spin near the top end. All the adjustments we made, to keep going fast but keep it glued, worked just like we had hoped, but we were still just a little too aggressive way down there. I actually thought it it had gotten far enough to make it with no problem, so I was a little surprised when it started spinning.

"Sometimes the hardest part of these really hot tracks is the front half, just getting it off the line and up-and-running. We should be able to smooth out the back end for tomorrow, and if we do that we'll have a really good race car. If we can get past a very big first round, we can have a big day. That first one, though, is the key and it's all we're focused on right now."

Worsham will face Bob Tasca in round one, in what is essentially a battle for 11th place. Coming into this race, Worsham sat 12th and trailed Tasca by only two points. Worsham's qualifying position gave him a net gain of four points over Tasca, so Worsham now officially sits in the 11th spot with a two-point lead. Jack Beckman holds down the 10th (and final) spot for the Countdown, and after qualifying is now 42 points ahead of Worsham. Beckman faces Gary Densham in round one, and is on Worsham's side of the ladder. The two could not meet until the semi-finals.