Del Worsham, driver of the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car, earned his third win in four NHRA playoff races during the AAA Auto Club Fall Nationals held at the Texas Motorplex.

Worsham began the weekend strong throughout qualifying gaining nine bonus points. However, he saved the best for the evening session. Running right beside his closest competitor in the standings, Jack Beckman, Worsham ran a 3.917 second pass, just besting Beckman’s 3.919.

That run ending up holding for the top spot in qualifying giving Worsham his first number one qualifier of the season and first since Norwalk last season. Texas native John Hale was his first opponent.

Hale smoked the tires early and Worsham ran another solid 3.925 second pass to advance pass the first round. Unfortunately, next up was Worsham’s teammate, Alexis DeJoria. They left together and were still side-by-side to half-track before Worsham was able to get the advantage.

Worsham moved back to semi-finals, but this time without lane choice against a championship contender, Ron Capps. Capps and Worsham also left together but Worsham steadily pulled away to win a close race.

On the opposite side of the ladder Beckman was defeating his opponents as well setting up a final round pairing with the top two drivers in the point standings. Worsham earned lane choice with a slight advantage on Beckman. He was cruising along and then the DHL Toyota Camry made a dive towards the center lane. Worsham was able to regroup and guide the Camry across the finish line for the win.

“I think we may have stolen this one today,” said Worsham. “It was definitely a challenge because we didn’t have the fastest car all day, so in between rounds the whole DHL Toyota team had to go back to work.  The final was crazy. we got a good start and we were cruising along and all of a sudden the car just made a hard right hand turn.  I let off and we hit the finish line and I didn’t know if we won or not until I heard it on the radio.  Now we’ve got a week off and we aren’t looking at the championship, we’re just going to prepare for Las Vegas and that’s the only thing that matters.”

Worsham leaves Texas with a 38-point lead in the standings with just two races remaining.

Post by Cody Poor