With one race to go, Funny Car
driver Del Worsham is ninth on the list for the Sept. 3 Skoal Showdown bonus
race's eight-car lineup. Considering his high-powered performance last year at
Indianapolis, in which he won $225,000 as winner of both the specialty race and
the U.S. Nationals, the Checker Schuck's Kragen Chevy Monte Carlo driver said he
"can't really think about it at all."
Whit Bazemore’s failure to qualify for the Lucas Oil Nationals at
Brainerd International Raceway left he door slightly open for the defending
Skoal Showdown champion to join the elite eight.However, at this weekend’s
O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis, Worsham will need to qualify fifth or
better -- and Bazemore would have to DNQ again, a scenario highly unlikely.
Worsham said he didn't expect any help from current No. 7 seed
Tony Pedregon, either. "They're running awfully well over there, so I don't
really see them messing up and handing it to us. If they run like they're
capable, we probably have no chance of catching them," he had said before
Brainerd, when Pedregon was No. 8. Pedregon and Bazemore since have traded
places.