WORSHAM'S FINE DAY LANDS HIM 10th IN STOUT FIELD
Del Worsham is beginning to really (really, really,) like his race car again. He drove the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Impala to a first lap 4.850 in the Georgia sunshine to easily outpace the entire field in session #1. Taking his No. 1 qualifying spot into the nightcap, Worsham thought he understood what was about to happen to the race field, but in the end even the most optimistic guesses as to how impressive session #2 would be, came up short. By the time Worsham ran, as part of the final pair, he had been moved all the way down to the No. 16 spot, and John Force (who ran next to him in that final pair) had been bumped out. Both ran well under enormous pressure, though Worsham outran the champ. The red CSK car's 4.783 was good enough to vault Worsham back up into the No. 10 spot.
"They asked me, at the top end, if we left something on the table there, because so many impressive runs were being made, one after another," Worsham said. "I told them it wasn't a case of leaving it on the table, it was just a case of that's what the car was tuned to run on that lap. Look, we've been really struggling for a year, I think I actually said we've been 'really, really, really struggling' on the P.A., because it got a laugh out of Bob Frey and Alan Reinhart, but it's the truth. We've finally found our way to a very good tune up, and we're very happy with how the car is running right now, under all conditions.
"The only thing, right now, is that my dad and I are not willing to go overboard during one of these 'hero sessions.' I don't want to lose track of where we are right now, because we don't run races at 8:00 at night on a perfect evening. We could've taken a shot at a 4.70 or a 4.69 there, but it would have been a big leap and we might easily have messed up and not made this field at all. Now, we have two very solid laps on the board, and I'm really excited about making two more laps in the daylight on Saturday. I don't know how much the track will give us, but the numbers aren't that important. What I want to do is just run right with the best cars, or ahead of them like we did this afternoon, when the sun is out."
