Twenty-four years ago, a vibrant and excited Del Worsham exited the escape hatch of his Funny Car thrilled to have won his first career NHRA Funny Car national event title over Mark Oswald. 

Moments earlier on The Nashville Network the late Steve Evans uttered, “And, every kid who dreamed the dream, is standing an applauding the effort.”

Headed into the 1991 NHRA Southern Nationals, finances dictated the just-turned 21 year old Worsham was at the end of the road for the season. The win enabled the team to finish the season. 

Two weeks ago, drag racing came full circle for Worsham in Pomona, Ca. An older and wiser Worsham climbed out of the escape hatch of the DHL Toyota, overcome with the emotion of winning the series championship. Laying in the back of his mind was the defining day in April of 1991. 

While Worsham had won a world championship in Top Fuel, this time is was a Funny Car; the crown he’d always dreamed of since he made the transition from BMX competitor to nitro racer. 

“I was holding it together until I saw my wife,” Worsham said of the moment he clinched the title. “You think back, I’ve been in the hospital. I’ve been hurt. I’ve lost races I should have won. Heck I went eight years between wins at one point. When it all comes together, it will take its toll on anyone.”

Subconsciously, Worsham had prepared himself for this day prio to the start of  the season. He was ready for a weekend which included counting points, fending off record runs and the extreme mental challenges which accompanied battling a giant in the form of Jack Beckman and the Don Schumacher Racing operation

“I worked on myself over the off-season, worked on my physique,” admitted Worsham. “I worked on myself mentally, so that if we got in the position to battle for the championship, (I would be ready). When we finished up like we did last year, I evaluated myself and what I could do to make myself better. Whether it made my car perform better, I don’t know. But I know it made me better.”

Worsham said he dropped thirty pounds just by a steady regimen of proper eating and daily time on the elliptical machine. He dropped 40 pounds initially but added ten back when it became apparent he’d cut back to much on food consumption and it was effecting his energy levels. 

Worsham employed the same principals into his 2015 championship approach as he used just getting a chance to race back at the start of his career. 

“I wanted to drive back then; there was no way I was going to let anything stand in my way,” Worsham recalled. 

Back then, the odds were clearly against the exuberant Worsham. 

“Financially, Atlanta was going to be our last race; we were in trouble,” Worsham explained. “We were going to go home and save up our money and basically rejoin the tour on the western swing.”

Then Worsham won, breaking an 18-year old record for the youngest driver to win a Funny Car race held by Billy Meyer. 

“This is the greatest day of my life,” the 21-year old Worsham proclaimed to Evans in his top end interview. 

Now Worsham speaks with all the authority of someone who has been there, and done that. 

“I would definitely tell any young kid out there you have to follow your dreams,” Worsham said. “I knew at five years old I wanted to be a Funny Car driver, and looking at the path and how I got there. My dad had a local alcohol Funny Car, and he wasn't a driver. He had a partner, and things just kind of transpired where I was actually able to drive the thing just by doing a lot of work and showing a lot of interest, and basically I put my entire life into it, and my dad saw that with his partner and gave me a shot to drive it.”

In 2016, for the first time in his career, Worsham will roll to the starting line in Pomona with the No. 1 on the side of his Funny Car. 

“I'm going to go out and enjoy that and know that we were the World Champions and try and win a second one,” Worsham said. “When I was growing up, the greats, Don Prudhomme, Kenny Bernstein, Frank Hawley, and Raymond Beadle, they won multiples, you know, so hopefully we can try and back up what we did this year and maybe we can do it a little bit better before the Countdown, so it's not a surprise.”

Those who watched the Worsham kid come up through the ranks knew it wasn’t a matter of if he’d win a Funny Car championship, it was a matter of when he’d do it.