SURPRISE TARGETS LOOM FOR WORSHAM IN READING
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READING, Pa. (August 12, 2008) -- When Del Worsham opened the 2008 season with a pair of consecutive DNQs, he put the U.S. Smokeless Showdown out of his mind. Entry into the eight-car special event is gained through qualifying points only, and the big fat zero that comes along with any failure to make a race field is a crippling blow when trying to earn a spot in the ultra-competitive event.
After then qualifying at six straight races to turn his season around, Worsham surprisingly stumbled again, barely missing the 16th spot at another pair of back-to-back races, this time at Topeka and Chicago. More concerned with his overall campaign, Worsham simply stopped thinking about the Showdown at all, and has spent nary a minute contemplating it for the last two months. Until now.
Bouncing back from the "dink" in Chicago, Worsham has been on a qualifying tear as of late, and has strung together a solid streak of placements, landing 5th, 7th, 9th, 2nd, 6th, and 4th over the last six races. By themselves, those numbers are solid but they also came at a time when a few other Showdown competitors were stumbling a bit, and Worsham made up ground in stunning fashion. Heading into the most recent race, in Brainerd, he was 20 points out of 9th place, and 55 behind Jerry Toliver, who sat in the 8th position. Suddenly, a spot in the U.S. Smokeless Showdown, which Worsham won in 2005 to pocket a cool $100,000, seemed not so impossible.
"I didn't think of the Showdown one single time for about four months, and then we improved a little bit and started keeping an eye on the points," Worsham said. "But, when we hit those two bumps in the road at Topeka and Chicago, it was done, over, and completely out of mind. There was just no way. Even over these last six races, when we've been very competitive during qualifying, I wouldn't have even considered the points had they not been shown to me. After Sonoma, kind of out of the blue, it was like 'Hey, we're not totally out of this if we keep running well' and that's just what we did in Brainerd. That's where it all got interesting, and I actually didn't believe it."
Knowing he had Beckman ahead of him, and Toliver in his sights, Worsham was happy to add up the points after qualifying No. 4 in Brainerd, and he instantly knew he'd tied Beckman for the 9th spot. He saw Toliver, however, was also in the top half of the field and figured he'd only sliced a bit off the 55 point lead, leaving himself a big challenge heading into this weekend's Toyo Tires Nationals in Reading, the last race at which Showdown points can be earned. It turns out, though, that Worsham had missed seeing yet another target on the horizon.
No one on the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team had noticed that Gary Scelzi was only five Showdown points ahead of Toliver entering Brainerd, and when Scelzi qualified 15th in Minnesota, he slid into the 8th spot. Worsham's net gain of 55 points on Scelzi moved him right onto the Oakley driver's tail, and the CSK pilot now stands exactly one "handful" of digits out of the Showdown field. Toliver currently resides in the 7th spot with 2,305 points, followed by Scelzi with 2,270, and then Worsham and Beckman, both with 2,265. Suddenly, the Reading race takes on a whole new challenge.
"It's a little complicated, but you earn 85 points by getting in 16th and 175 by qualifying number one," Worsham said. "Mostly, it's five-point increases for every spot you move up the ladder, until the top four spots where it's 10. Once we added things up in Brainerd, and the guys told me we were only five points out, I thought they did the math wrong. None of us had even thought about who was in 7th place, and I couldn't have even told you who was ahead of Jerry coming into the race. I made them show me the numbers to prove it to me.
"So now, it's pretty simple. We have to out-qualify Beckman and Scelzi in Reading. That won't be easy, but if we do it we're probably in. I can only say 'probably' because there just happens to be another guy screaming up the points sheet from below, and he could break all of our hearts."
That guy is John Force, who also must have thought his Showdown chances were nil after a horrendous crash ended his 2007 season with four races left on the docket. He, too, is making a hard charge at the field, and is a scant 35 points behind Worsham. The scenarios are plentiful, with Force, Beckman, Worsham, Scelzi, and Toliver all within 75 points of each other, and all battling for the last two spots on the Showdown grid. It should make qualifying at Maple Grove Raceway all the more interesting, and the excitement should offer a diversion away from the recent stress of the POWERade points chase and the upcoming Countdown.
Worsham's hopes of ending up in the 10th spot took a huge hit in Brainerd, and he now sits 97 points out of contention with two races left before the cut. Again, though, he now finds himself chasing a driver he hadn't noticed before, as Mike Neff has slid into the 10th position after Beckman's final round finish in Brainerd.
"We've been focused on (Bob) Tasca and Beckman for so long, it was the same deal as the Showdown," Worsham said. "Frankly, 97 points in two races is a huge mountain to climb, but it can be done and as long as it's possible we're going to try to make it happen. We still have Tasca between us and the tenth spot, so the job is pretty massive, but maybe the whole Showdown thing will give us something different to concentrate on and good things will happen.
"We're just going to keep running as well as we can, and let the chips fall. If we run better than all those other guys in qualifying, we'll make the Showdown and have a shot at the hundred grand, but we can't control how the other teams run. I guess if we just go to Reading and qualify number one, they can't catch us. After that, we'll just keep working hard and try to win rounds. In the end, the points for both deals will just be what they're going to be, and we'll see where we sit."
One year ago, Worsham did qualify No. 1 at Reading, and he then went to the semi-finals during eliminations. Both of those outcomes would serve his dual missions very well.
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/d_worsham.jpg" alt="d_worsham" align="right"borders="0"/>
READING, Pa. (August 12, 2008) -- When Del Worsham opened the 2008 season with a pair of consecutive DNQs, he put the U.S. Smokeless Showdown out of his mind. Entry into the eight-car special event is gained through qualifying points only, and the big fat zero that comes along with any failure to make a race field is a crippling blow when trying to earn a spot in the ultra-competitive event.
After then qualifying at six straight races to turn his season around, Worsham surprisingly stumbled again, barely missing the 16th spot at another pair of back-to-back races, this time at Topeka and Chicago. More concerned with his overall campaign, Worsham simply stopped thinking about the Showdown at all, and has spent nary a minute contemplating it for the last two months. Until now.
Bouncing back from the "dink" in Chicago, Worsham has been on a qualifying tear as of late, and has strung together a solid streak of placements, landing 5th, 7th, 9th, 2nd, 6th, and 4th over the last six races. By themselves, those numbers are solid but they also came at a time when a few other Showdown competitors were stumbling a bit, and Worsham made up ground in stunning fashion. Heading into the most recent race, in Brainerd, he was 20 points out of 9th place, and 55 behind Jerry Toliver, who sat in the 8th position. Suddenly, a spot in the U.S. Smokeless Showdown, which Worsham won in 2005 to pocket a cool $100,000, seemed not so impossible.
"I didn't think of the Showdown one single time for about four months, and then we improved a little bit and started keeping an eye on the points," Worsham said. "But, when we hit those two bumps in the road at Topeka and Chicago, it was done, over, and completely out of mind. There was just no way. Even over these last six races, when we've been very competitive during qualifying, I wouldn't have even considered the points had they not been shown to me. After Sonoma, kind of out of the blue, it was like 'Hey, we're not totally out of this if we keep running well' and that's just what we did in Brainerd. That's where it all got interesting, and I actually didn't believe it."
Knowing he had Beckman ahead of him, and Toliver in his sights, Worsham was happy to add up the points after qualifying No. 4 in Brainerd, and he instantly knew he'd tied Beckman for the 9th spot. He saw Toliver, however, was also in the top half of the field and figured he'd only sliced a bit off the 55 point lead, leaving himself a big challenge heading into this weekend's Toyo Tires Nationals in Reading, the last race at which Showdown points can be earned. It turns out, though, that Worsham had missed seeing yet another target on the horizon.
No one on the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team had noticed that Gary Scelzi was only five Showdown points ahead of Toliver entering Brainerd, and when Scelzi qualified 15th in Minnesota, he slid into the 8th spot. Worsham's net gain of 55 points on Scelzi moved him right onto the Oakley driver's tail, and the CSK pilot now stands exactly one "handful" of digits out of the Showdown field. Toliver currently resides in the 7th spot with 2,305 points, followed by Scelzi with 2,270, and then Worsham and Beckman, both with 2,265. Suddenly, the Reading race takes on a whole new challenge.
"It's a little complicated, but you earn 85 points by getting in 16th and 175 by qualifying number one," Worsham said. "Mostly, it's five-point increases for every spot you move up the ladder, until the top four spots where it's 10. Once we added things up in Brainerd, and the guys told me we were only five points out, I thought they did the math wrong. None of us had even thought about who was in 7th place, and I couldn't have even told you who was ahead of Jerry coming into the race. I made them show me the numbers to prove it to me.
"So now, it's pretty simple. We have to out-qualify Beckman and Scelzi in Reading. That won't be easy, but if we do it we're probably in. I can only say 'probably' because there just happens to be another guy screaming up the points sheet from below, and he could break all of our hearts."
That guy is John Force, who also must have thought his Showdown chances were nil after a horrendous crash ended his 2007 season with four races left on the docket. He, too, is making a hard charge at the field, and is a scant 35 points behind Worsham. The scenarios are plentiful, with Force, Beckman, Worsham, Scelzi, and Toliver all within 75 points of each other, and all battling for the last two spots on the Showdown grid. It should make qualifying at Maple Grove Raceway all the more interesting, and the excitement should offer a diversion away from the recent stress of the POWERade points chase and the upcoming Countdown.
Worsham's hopes of ending up in the 10th spot took a huge hit in Brainerd, and he now sits 97 points out of contention with two races left before the cut. Again, though, he now finds himself chasing a driver he hadn't noticed before, as Mike Neff has slid into the 10th position after Beckman's final round finish in Brainerd.
"We've been focused on (Bob) Tasca and Beckman for so long, it was the same deal as the Showdown," Worsham said. "Frankly, 97 points in two races is a huge mountain to climb, but it can be done and as long as it's possible we're going to try to make it happen. We still have Tasca between us and the tenth spot, so the job is pretty massive, but maybe the whole Showdown thing will give us something different to concentrate on and good things will happen.
"We're just going to keep running as well as we can, and let the chips fall. If we run better than all those other guys in qualifying, we'll make the Showdown and have a shot at the hundred grand, but we can't control how the other teams run. I guess if we just go to Reading and qualify number one, they can't catch us. After that, we'll just keep working hard and try to win rounds. In the end, the points for both deals will just be what they're going to be, and we'll see where we sit."
One year ago, Worsham did qualify No. 1 at Reading, and he then went to the semi-finals during eliminations. Both of those outcomes would serve his dual missions very well.
