All in the families in drag races
The drag racing community is extremely tight and families have long histories with one another. Just look at the Force and Worsham clans.
John Force and Chuck Worsham have competed against one another for years in Funny Car, Force as a driver/owner and Worsham as a owner/tuner for son Del of Chino Hills.
Last Sunday in Houston, Del denied the Force family a piece of history. Not only did Worsham end a 55-race drought with his win at the O'Reilly Nationals, but he defeated Ashley Force in the finals, stopping her from becoming the first woman to win in the class at a NHRA event.
But not only did he beat the younger Force, Worsham also spoiled a father-daughter final by beating John in the semifinals. But then, Worsham has a history of denying the elder Force as in 2002 when he won in Phoenix, preventing John from his 100th career win for a bit.
It was the first NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series national event win for Worsham since the 2005 U.S. Nationals. In the final round, Worsham ran 4.933 seconds at 316.60 mph to 4.971, 302.62 for Force.
"What a great day," Worsham said. "I don't think one person working on the car was on our car in '05. We've just got a bunch of young kids that are really excited and really hungry. Everything just came together."
"I'm not going to say it was without trouble. We had problems in the pits, we had problems in warm-ups, we had problems with our timer box, but it all came together. My Dad made some great calls on the starting line. It was getting hotter all day and going away, and he kept up with it and didn't get crazy. He had a great day."
Worsham's team has struggled since that U.S. Nationals win, to the point of not qualifying the first three events of the 2007 season, and the first two this year.
"But we kept up with it, and I could just tell by the way it was running that this day was going to come again, I just didn't know when and didn't know it was going to be this quick," said Worsham. "It finally happened and here it is. It's tough, but the fans are what keep you excited out here. That's why you come out here. The fans come out here and support you and your family and it keeps everybody together. I've been driving 18 years now, and it just keeps me going."
SILLY SEASON
What was once an off-season tradition, the Silly Season is now year-round. It merely refers to the countless rumors that swirl around the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
This week, General Mills made official what had been speculated for months: it is leaving Petty Enterprises after nine seasons for Richard Childress Racing in 2009. It will give RCR the maximum of four cars.
The question is now whether Bobby Labonte will follow the sponsor. Petty has offered Labonte an extension and he's reportedly considering the offer.
RCR is still in search of another sponsor as AT&T, per its agreement with NASCAR, is in its final season on Jeff Burton's Chevrolet.
TIRING ISSUE
Thanks to Tony Stewart, Goodyear took a beating for its tire at Atlanta Motor Speedway in early March. The Sprint Cup Series is at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, a track similar to Atlanta, but with a different tire.
Goodyear will use a tire similar to the one used at Texas last year, with some modification to the sidewall to fit the car.
"The people building the tire have a ton to do with how competitive and how racy these cars are," said Kasey Kahne earlier this week. "So if they bring us a good tire that we can race on, Texas is gonna be a lot of fun. I'm definitely looking forward to it.
"I think Atlanta was extreme. We could have ran 120, 140 laps on a set of tires there. Regardless, since 2004, I can't remember ever wanting to run over about 40 or 45 laps at Atlanta 'cause you're ready to cord a tire or something like that just because it eats the tires up."
PIT STOPS
Fairplex will host the 2008 Off-Road Expo, the nation's largest off-road consumer products show series,this weekend. Among the new features are United Off-Road Challenge (UROC) rock racing demonstrations and motorcycle stunt performances in addition to the latest 4X4s, sand rails, ATVs, dirt bikes, rock crawlers, mud boggers and accessories.
Show hours on Friday are 2 to 8 p.m.; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. ...
NHRA Top Fuel driver Rod Fuller was uninjured after his 2001 Lamborghini Diablo caught fire and exploded Monday near his Las Vegas home. "I had just filled up at the gas station near my house and was going less than 45 mph," said Fuller. "I saw and felt a flame and smelled smoke. I didn't get the car fully stopped and unhooked the seat belt and jumped out. The car rolled another 10-15 feet and it exploded."
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