Del Worsham just ran out of time.
Worsham in the CSK Chevy Impala saw his long-shot hopes of
qualifying for the Countdown extinguished when Jack Beckman and Mike
Neff advanced to the semifinals during the NHRA Toyo Tire Nationals in
Reading, but Worsham can take some solace in his making an improbable
dash over the last few months to qualify for the U.S. Smokeless
Showdown bonus event to be contested at the U.S. Nationals on Saturday,
Aug. 30, with $100,000 going to the one-day event winner.
Worsham won this bonus event, based on Funny Car qualifying over the
course of a year, in 2005, but with two DNQs to start the season and
two more in the month of June, qualifying for the Showdown was not on
his radar screen. But on the strength of strong qualifying efforts the
second half of this season, Worsham came to Reading needing to
out-qualify Jack Beckman and Gary Scelzi, while he also had to hope
that John Force would not out-qualify him by 35 Showdown points.
Worsham (9th) out-qualified Beckman (13th) while Scelzi and Toliver
both failed to make the race field here. As for Force, he outpaced
Worsham, but not by enough to get around him and the improbable
qualifying scenario was complete. The final math equation resulted in
Worsham not only making the Showdown, but doing so in the seventh
position, while Force completed his own unlikely comeback by moving
into the eighth position.