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Just when things had begun to look up for Del Worsham and his red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car team, the unforgiving and constantly challenging nature of this sport rose up and set the popular driver right back down, leaving him searching for answers after a confusing first-round loss. Coming off a round win in Reading, and his best qualifying effort since Sonoma in late July, all signs pointed toward a Richmond resurgence, but all Worsham got was a headache and a date on the track for Monday testing.
After watching his teammate, Phil Burkart, plow through the field in Reading to take a much needed and emotional win, it looked like Worsham was going to be the ball carrier on this crisp and clear weekend in Virginia. On his first qualifying pass down the now unfamiliar Richmond track, Worsham was blasting to a big run before the blower belt separated itself from its position on the pulleys, leaving him with a 4.937. After a tire shaker on Friday night, Worsham came back with a pair of sweet runs on Saturday, posting a 4.837 and then following that up with a 4.815, to grab the No. 8 spot.
"We haven't been qualifying very well lately, there's no getting around that, so it absolutely felt good to go out there on Saturday and put two very good laps together," Worsham said. "We got in the top half, which may or may not be a big deal on any race day, but you'll always take the 8th spot over the 9th, so we were happy to do that. Other than the tire shake on Friday night, we really made three very good laps. The blower belt thing on the first one was avoidable, because that belt had run before on a tire spinning lap and shouldn't have been back on the car.
"By the time we got to Saturday, the car was really cooperating and doing exactly what we wanted it to do. We improved on each run, and by the end there we were running right with the quickest cars in the class. Considering all we've been through this year, I couldn't have asked for much more than that."
The No. 8 spot brought with it a first round match-up with Jack Beckman, who recently took over the seat in the car previously driven by Whit Bazemore, and who was still looking for his first round win in a Funny Car. Worsham controlled lane choice, and took the favored left lane.
"Jack is going to be a fine Funny Car driver for a long time, but he's really just getting started over here in this class," Worsham said. "Even with that, I won't lie and say I was happy to run a guy who was still looking for his first win, driving a car that's as fast as that one. You know they're going to break the seal on that pretty soon, but I sure wanted to keep him in the winless column for another week.
"We just took the data we had from the two good Saturday runs, and put what we thought was a solid tune-up in the car. We weren't being edgy, or trying to get over center on it, we were just trying to run a nice solid lap just like we did on the two passes before this. I sure wasn't expecting what happened."
The unexpected occurrence Worsham referenced came just after he stepped up to one of his best reaction times of the year at the starting line. Leaping out first with a strong .058 light, Worsham quickly lost traction and watched as Beckman took the lap with a 4.876.
"I couldn't believe it when it smoked the tires," Worsham said. "I know people think tuners and drivers are nuts when they say 'It shouldn't have done that' but it really shouldn't have done that. On the computer, it overlayed the other launches just perfectly, right to the point where it just spun the tires. I don't get it, but we're going to keep working at this, including tomorrow when we test here.
"We'll try a few more new things tomorrow, and we'll try to figure out how we did what we did in the first round. It's one thing to take a shot at a big tune-up and see it not work, or to be totally lost and just take a stab in the dark. We've been in both of those situations, so I know what to expect a little bit and I'm not totally shocked when the car doesn't make it. This time, I could hardly have been any more confident in the car going down the track, and it just up and did that. It's very frustrating."
What started out so sweet ended up sour, much to the chagrin of Mr. Worsham.
Worsham Frustrated by First-Round Loss
Just when things had begun to look up for Del Worsham and his red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car team, the unforgiving and constantly challenging nature of this sport rose up and set the popular driver right back down, leaving him searching for answers after a confusing first-round loss. Coming off a round win in Reading, and his best qualifying effort since Sonoma in late July, all signs pointed toward a Richmond resurgence, but all Worsham got was a headache and a date on the track for Monday testing.
After watching his teammate, Phil Burkart, plow through the field in Reading to take a much needed and emotional win, it looked like Worsham was going to be the ball carrier on this crisp and clear weekend in Virginia. On his first qualifying pass down the now unfamiliar Richmond track, Worsham was blasting to a big run before the blower belt separated itself from its position on the pulleys, leaving him with a 4.937. After a tire shaker on Friday night, Worsham came back with a pair of sweet runs on Saturday, posting a 4.837 and then following that up with a 4.815, to grab the No. 8 spot.
"We haven't been qualifying very well lately, there's no getting around that, so it absolutely felt good to go out there on Saturday and put two very good laps together," Worsham said. "We got in the top half, which may or may not be a big deal on any race day, but you'll always take the 8th spot over the 9th, so we were happy to do that. Other than the tire shake on Friday night, we really made three very good laps. The blower belt thing on the first one was avoidable, because that belt had run before on a tire spinning lap and shouldn't have been back on the car.
"By the time we got to Saturday, the car was really cooperating and doing exactly what we wanted it to do. We improved on each run, and by the end there we were running right with the quickest cars in the class. Considering all we've been through this year, I couldn't have asked for much more than that."
The No. 8 spot brought with it a first round match-up with Jack Beckman, who recently took over the seat in the car previously driven by Whit Bazemore, and who was still looking for his first round win in a Funny Car. Worsham controlled lane choice, and took the favored left lane.
"Jack is going to be a fine Funny Car driver for a long time, but he's really just getting started over here in this class," Worsham said. "Even with that, I won't lie and say I was happy to run a guy who was still looking for his first win, driving a car that's as fast as that one. You know they're going to break the seal on that pretty soon, but I sure wanted to keep him in the winless column for another week.
"We just took the data we had from the two good Saturday runs, and put what we thought was a solid tune-up in the car. We weren't being edgy, or trying to get over center on it, we were just trying to run a nice solid lap just like we did on the two passes before this. I sure wasn't expecting what happened."
The unexpected occurrence Worsham referenced came just after he stepped up to one of his best reaction times of the year at the starting line. Leaping out first with a strong .058 light, Worsham quickly lost traction and watched as Beckman took the lap with a 4.876.
"I couldn't believe it when it smoked the tires," Worsham said. "I know people think tuners and drivers are nuts when they say 'It shouldn't have done that' but it really shouldn't have done that. On the computer, it overlayed the other launches just perfectly, right to the point where it just spun the tires. I don't get it, but we're going to keep working at this, including tomorrow when we test here.
"We'll try a few more new things tomorrow, and we'll try to figure out how we did what we did in the first round. It's one thing to take a shot at a big tune-up and see it not work, or to be totally lost and just take a stab in the dark. We've been in both of those situations, so I know what to expect a little bit and I'm not totally shocked when the car doesn't make it. This time, I could hardly have been any more confident in the car going down the track, and it just up and did that. It's very frustrating."
What started out so sweet ended up sour, much to the chagrin of Mr. Worsham.
