With one race to go, Funny Car driver Del Worsham is ninth on the list for the Sept. 3 Skoal Showdown bonus race's eight-car lineup. Considering his high-powered performance last year at Indianapolis, in which he won $225,000 as winner of both the specialty race and the U.S. Nationals, the Checker Schuck's Kragen Chevy Monte Carlo driver said he "can't really think about it at all."
 

Whit Bazemore’s failure to qualify for the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway left he door slightly open for the defending Skoal Showdown champion to join the elite eight.However, at this weekend’s O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis, Worsham will need to qualify fifth or better -- and Bazemore would have to DNQ again, a scenario highly unlikely.

Worsham said he didn't expect any help from current No. 7 seed Tony Pedregon, either. "They're running awfully well over there, so I don't really see them messing up and handing it to us. If they run like they're capable, we probably have no chance of catching them," he had said before Brainerd, when Pedregon was No. 8. Pedregon and Bazemore since have traded places.  

With one race to go, Funny Car driver Del Worsham is ninth on the list for the Sept. 3 Skoal Showdown bonus race's eight-car lineup. Considering his high-powered performance last year at Indianapolis, in which he won $225,000 as winner of both the specialty race and the U.S. Nationals, the Checker Schuck's Kragen Chevy Monte Carlo driver said he "can't really think about it at all."

Whit Bazemore’s failure to qualify for the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway left he door slightly open for the defending Skoal Showdown champion to join the elite eight.However, at this weekend’s O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis, Worsham will need to qualify fifth or better -- and Bazemore would have to DNQ again, a scenario highly unlikely.

Worsham said he didn't expect any help from current No. 7 seed Tony Pedregon, either. "They're running awfully well over there, so I don't really see them messing up and handing it to us. If they run like they're capable, we probably have no chance of catching them," he had said before Brainerd, when Pedregon was No. 8. Pedregon and Bazemore since have traded places.  

"The DNQ we took at Topeka is the difference right now, and that was one of those races where the Friday night run was the whole enchilada to get qualified, and we messed up on that run," Worsham said. "We ran as well as anyone in the heat on Saturday, but we couldn't run the number to get in the field. So it's kind of out of our hands right now. We'll just qualify as well as we can, and whatever happens . . . happens.

"If we end up ninth," he said, "then we don't deserve to be in the Skoal Showdown."

The Team Castrol Ford Mustangs of John Force, Eric Medlen, and Robert Hight locked up the top three starting positions for the Skoal Showdown. Determined this weekend will be the No. 1 seed. Hight, who has put the Automobile Club of Southern California Ford in the No. 1 qualifying position six times this year, leads Force and the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang by 70 points.

Already assured of joining the three Fords will be the Dodges of Gary Scelzi and Ron Capps and the Chevrolets of Tommy Johnson Jr. and Tony Pedregon.