Del Worsham made the 12-car cut on Friday in Denver, which guarantees him nothing but does allow his best time to count, and he did it running a number his team was unsure how to react to, a 4.287 at 284.33 mph. The new 1,000-foot race track made its debut on this hot day on the mountain, and despite the fact drivers, crew chiefs, and crew members had all pored over their data to get a good idea as to what was a great time, a good one, or not so hot lap, the instant reaction was put into practice for the first time here. As the second car to run in the evening session, Worsham jumped well up from the 4.590 he had run in the afternoon, and his teammates were at first unsure how good the number was, but then excited to know it was competitive.
“The guys said they were pretty excited at first, because we’ve never seen numbers like this, but then a couple more cars ran and it became obvious that we were going to be in a fight to stick in the top 12 tonight,” Worsham said. “We made it, which is all that matters, and at least we know we have this time on the board going into two afternoon runs on Saturday, rather than having to start the day as part of the pack that’s outside the field. I’ll tell you this, the first day of 1,000-foot racing seems to have shown us one thing; that the new distance will tighten up the pack. Most of the variables on a stout track used to come in those last 320 feet, so now you look at the sheet and we’re all pretty tightly bunched.”
“As a matter of fact, Jerry Toliver ran the same 4.287 we did, but got the higher spot on the basis of speed. You better believe the thought went through my head that we could end up 13th tonight on the basis of speed, and that would’ve really stunk. Right in front of Jerry are Robert Hight and Ron Capps, who both ran 4.285. So, the difference between our 11th spot and Ron’s 8th, is just 2-thousandths of a second. The racing is great and it’s safer, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s all good. It’s only been one day, but it looks like we made a really great move with this change, and I think the fans might end up loving this but we’ll all be getting gray hair.”
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