WORSHAM TAKES ’15 CAMRY TO WINNERS CIRCLE AT TOYOTA NATIONALS IN LAS VEGAS
LAS VEGAS, NV – Del Worsham laid down a blistering 4.065-second pass to defeat John Force and give the 2015 Toyota Camry body its first 
Funny Car victory in the Toyota Nationals Sunday at The Strip At Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Worsham defeated Jeff Arend, Ron Capps and Matt Hagan before eliminating Force for the win – running the quickest Funny Car pass of the day in the semi-finals with a 4.059-second run.
The victory was his 35th career NHRA victory and his 27th in a Funny Car, but his first Funny Car win since Richmond in 2009. He moved into Top Fuel in 2011, winning eight races and the world championship before taking a one-year hiatus from the driver’s seat. He returned to Funny Car racing last season.
“It’s been a crazy day,” said Worsham, who earned the fifth overall win for a Camry this season. “I had a good feeling all day. It feels great to win the debut of the new 2015 Camry body and to do it at the Toyota Nationals makes it even more special. This DHL Toyota team has just been working so hard and we’ve been close, but it’s never easy out here. It’s been five years since we won in a Funny Car. I never thought it would take two years to win out here (since coming out of retirement for the ’13 season), but the competition in Funny Car is just so tough now. The big teams are very good and the smaller teams have taken really taken a big step up in staying competitive, so there’s never an easy round.”
While Worsham earned the victory today, things didn’t go quite as smoothly for the rest of the Toyota Funny Car contingent. Alexis DeJoria ran one of the quickest passes of the day with a 4.088-second pass, only to be narrowly defeated by Tommy Johnson on a hole-shot. Tony Pedregon also lost in the first round, while Cruz Pedregon didn’t qualify.
In Top Fuel, three Toyota-sponsored cars advanced to the second round. Richie Crampton, Shawn Langdon, Khalid alBalooshi all earned opening-round victories before falling in round two. Crampton, who registered three 3.7-second passes in qualifying, defeated Bob Vandergriff in his opening run before a second-round upset by Billy Torrence. Langdon knocked off Steve Torrence before falling to eventual race winner Spencer Massey, while alBalooshi beat Larry Dixon and lost to J.R. Todd, despite running a 3.78-second pass.
The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series will take next weekend off before concluding the season at the 50th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
