WORSHAM WORKS HIS WAY IN

Del Worsham entered the final qualifying session in the No. 14 spot, but was utterly confident he would not be above the bump line by the time he ran his final lap. As predicted, he came to the line for his last run outside of the field, but calmly put his Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Impala SS right down the middle of the lane for a solid 4.943, landing him 15th in the field.

Worsham will race Mike Ashley in round one.

"This was such a weird event with the first run on Friday, when everyone was taking blind shots at it, shaping the field," Worsham said. "Today, the sun came back out and it was not at all easy to get to the other end without spinning the tires. So, when we smoked them on the first pass, we knew it was coming down to an all-or-nothing deal on the last run, and we all felt really confident that we had the tune-up right to run a 4.95, or something close to that. To be honest, the thing I worried about the most was running what we were trying to run, and have it come up just a thousandth short. Thankfully, it didn't work out that way, so we're in and we're happy.

"That final run was about as straight and smooth as you can do it in a Funny Car. I mean, it didn't drift or wash out at all, it just went straight down there. It finally moved around a little in the last 100-feet or so, but that's nothing compared to your standard Funny Car run when you're steering and correcting all the way. It will be tough to win out of this spot, but we're coming out here tomorrow to do our best and we'll see how that shakes out."