Del Worsham made a fine lap during today’s first qualifying session at the Schuck’s Nationals, posting a 4.131 which left him in the 8th spot. As Q2 progressed, and the E.T.s began dipping lower and lower, Worsham had slid to the 12th spot by the time he finally made his attempt. Having made a conscious decision to be aggressive on this pass, Worsham then drove the Techron Impala to a stout 4.073, at 300.40 mph, jumping temporarily into the No. 1 spot. Robert Hight ran one pair later, and his sterling 4.056 took over the provisional pole, while Worsham’s time held on for the No. 2 position after one full day of qualifying.
“Our first run was nice, but the best part of it was that we knew there was a lot more on the table to go get, and we decided to go for it,” Worsham said. “It was not a decision made without risk, I promise you that. As far as we were concerned, we were jumping on it pretty hard and when you do that you can blow the tires off right at the hit, or anywhere down the track. We knew there was a chance we might be outside the top 12 by the time we ran, and if we did overpower the track we might be putting ourselves in a tougher spot, but we were all in agreement on what to do and we turned just about all the knobs up.
“Once it got off the line and started pulling, I was pretty sure it was going to make it and it sure felt like a strong lap. I kept my foot down right through the finish line, to get every ounce of E.T. out of it, and we were all happy with what it ran. It feels good to go for a home run and hit one, and even though Robert’s run was huge, we’re still very happy to be No. 2 overnight.”
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