CSK DOWNSIZES TEAM; WORSHAM REMAINS
currently completing his first year with Worsham Racing.
"Our partnership with Del Worsham and his organization has been very beneficial to us for 11 seasons, and we're extremely excited to renew our agreement with Del for 2008," said Jim Schoenberger, Vice President-Marketing for Phoenix-based CSK Auto. "In today's business world, highly focused and nimble organizations are the ones best able to lead the way, and we feel it's in everyone's best interest to place all of our focus on Del and his red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team in 2008, rather than spread our support and the team's infrastructure over two duplicate organizations.
"Having been associated with Del, his father Chuck, and the Worsham Racing organization since the start of the 1997 season, we're all excited to extend what has been a very successful relationship through the 2008 NHRA POWERade season. This excitement extends from our corporate office, through our distribution centers and store crews, right into the heart of our customer base. We're all great fans of NHRA Drag Racing and the Worsham team."
CSK Auto, Inc. has exercised its option to renew its primary sponsorship of
Del Worsham's NHRA Nitro Funny Car for the 2008 season, which will mark the
12th year the auto parts company has backed the successful and popular
driver from Southern California. In conjunction with the renewal, the
company and racing team have announced a shift in their marketing strategy,
as they now will focus their resources on Worsham's car alone. CSK has
sponsored two Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Cars since 2000, with a
variety of drivers filling the seat, including Jeff Arend who is
currently completing his first year with Worsham Racing.
"Our
partnership with Del Worsham and his organization has been very beneficial
to us for 11 seasons, and we're extremely excited to renew our agreement
with Del for 2008," said Jim Schoenberger, Vice President-Marketing for
Phoenix-based CSK Auto. "In today's business world, highly focused and
nimble organizations are the ones best able to lead the way, and we feel
it's in everyone's best interest to place all of our focus on Del and his
red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team in 2008, rather than spread our support
and the team's infrastructure over two duplicate
organizations.
"Having been associated with Del, his father Chuck, and
the Worsham Racing organization since the start of the 1997 season, we're
all excited to extend what has been a very successful relationship through
the 2008 NHRA POWERade season. This excitement extends from our
corporate office, through our distribution centers and store crews,
right into the heart of our customer base. We're all great fans of NHRA
Drag Racing and the Worsham team."
Worsham is likewise excited to begin
preparation for the 2008 season, while the 2007 campaign winds down with its
final three races in October and early November. Having earned 19 of his 21
career race victories, along with one Skoal Showdown trophy, since bringing
the CSK
sponsorship aboard in 1997, Worsham may be winless in 2007, but he
is more determined than ever to take his team and his marketing partners
to the Winner's Circle again.
"First of all, I'm excited to know we
will have a 12th season with CSK Auto, and we plan to pour every ounce of
our energy into putting together the best team we can assemble for 2008,"
Worsham said. "The NHRA Funny Car class is so ultra-competitive now, with
more very fast
full-time teams than the 16-car race field can hold on any
given weekend, so we know we need to ratchet up our intensity and our
attention to detail to all-time high levels if we want to be a part of
the '08 Countdown To The Championship.
"It's been great to field two
Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Chevrolets for the past eight years, and we've had
the pleasure of working alongside a large number of fantastic tuners,
drivers, and crew members over that time, but I honestly don't feel like we
need to have two cars to be winners. I have no doubt that we'll be able to
continue improving, just like we have in the second half of the 2007 season,
and I know we're capable of winning races and making a run at the 2008
POWERade Championship.
"All of the guys on the blue team, from
(co-crew chiefs) Marc Denner and Chris Cunningham to the newest crew guy,
have done all they can to make our program better, and it's my hope that we
can keep at least some of them on board with us" Worsham added. "One CSK
car may be going away, but the knowledge and the skills we've developed as a
group, going all the way back to 1991, aren't going to disappear. We
will have a very good team in 2008, made up of the best of the best, I
can promise you that."