Popular racer Del Worsham picked up his first Funny Car win since Richmond 2009 and thrilled event sponsor Toyota when he drove his all new 2015 Toyota Camry to victory during the NHRA Toyota Nationals at Las Vegas.

The Californian used a performance of 4.064 sec at 318.39 to take the final round victory over 16-time world champion John Force. It was Worsham’s first win of the season following runner-up finishes at Englishtown and Dallas. With his win light in the final – he denied Force a chance to climb within one point of series leader Matt Hagan.

“I think we’ve been to probably four finals and this is the first time we’ve won with Kalitta Motorsports,” said Worsham, who won a world championship in Top Fuel in 2011. “We’ve almost had lane choice and low elapsed time in all those finals and we didn’t bring out a big enough stick. Today, the big bat was out. This was all about the crew chief and the crew and the job they did today.”

Hagan fell to Worsham in the semifinals and but he still holds a 21-point lead over Force setting up a dramatic championship deciding event at Pomona’s AAA Auto Club Finals in two weeks.  Hagan had earned valuable bonus points by qualifying his Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots Dodge Charger on the pole with a 3.983 secs effort (track record).

FC class racing at Las Vegas drew 19 machines for competition.

(Matt Hagan set both Low ET and top speed)

Event Essentials:  NHRA Toyota Nationals (Oct. 31-Nov. 2nd) Las Vegas NV

(John Force raced his special edition bodied Mustang to the FC final to keep his repeat title hopes alive)

Posted with files from NHRA Communications & Bruce Biegler

Photos by:  Luke Nieuwhof