WORSHAM HAS GOOD RUN AT PHOENIX

PHOENIX, AZ – While two-time NHRA champion Del Worsham may not have gone as far in the 2017 NHRA Arizona Nationals as he would have liked, he is choosing to look at the bright side. The 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car champion qualified eighth, improving his qualifying position by four since the Circle K NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, two weeks ago.

“It felt good. Friday the car ran really well, it ran a career best for this team. Friday’s qualifying was on track with how we are trying to improve,” said Worsham.

Despite qualifying on the top half of the ladder, Worsham was bested by Robert Hight in the first round, after they each smoked the tires.

“I was thinking it was going to be a great day, we were on the top half of the field, and we had lane choice. I was thinking that everything is coming together here. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way,” Worsham explained. ”We went with the lane that all the wins were coming out of. Since we qualified 8th, that gave us last pair, they didn’t really give us an option on when to run, so we were forced to run last, and all the winning cars were coming out of the right lane, and it appeared to be the lane of choice.”

With each round, Worsham and his family team are learning more and more on how they can improve for the rest of the season. With three weeks until Gainesville, Worsham is planning on taking full advantage of the extra time.

“We learned that our car is fast and that it can qualify in the top half of the field and that we’re improving. We also learned though that we have some work to do and there are some weak spots that we have to work on and that having a consistent race car is still a problem. But mostly we learned that our car is capable and it is very fast,” Worsham stated. “I’m mostly looking forward to just keep running the car. It feels like things just got started, and now there’s this big gap between races, so I’m looking forward to going to Gainesville. It’s a race I’ve won in the past a few times, so I’m looking forward to picking up where I left off.”

Worsham returns to action for the NHRA Gatornationals on March 17-19 at Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Fla.